


Unattainable

by Megameatloafcake



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Character Study, Child Death, Drunk Sex, Dubious Consent, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, Murder, No Sebastian or Ciel, Pre-Circus Ark, Regular smut, So much angst, they’re both drunk and having sex the first time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2018-10-29 17:27:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10858677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megameatloafcake/pseuds/Megameatloafcake
Summary: After Doll encounters a young woman with the ability to predict futures Joker decides to allow her to audition for a spot in the Noah's Ark Circus. As time goes by Joker begins to realize that he may very well be developing an attraction towards her. But he will discover that the love that he longs for is not his to own.UNDER CONSTRUCTION AS OF 4/3/2018





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello readers!
> 
> Those of you who have already read this story may be wondering what I’m doing now. Well, I’m re-working the whole story. There is an unchanged and completed version of this story over on fanfiction.net under the same pen name, I’m just editing it on this site because I’m much more active here.
> 
> I’m changing this story up because I haven’t really been pleased with the story as a whole (the romance feels a little forced, everything feels a little rushed, there are some weird moments that seem out of place, stuff like that.). It won’t take me very long to post the story up, I’ll just need a bit of time to figure out how exactly I’m going to stretch the story out and not have as many awkward time jumps. If you have any suggestions or tips for me I would definitely appreciate it, feel free to PM me if you want!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joker and the others lose Doll, but find a strange woman who can read fortunes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There aren't any major changes to this chapter, to those who have read this story before.

"Doll? Where are 'ee?"

Normally Joker wouldn't mind the hot and humid weather that England would produce during the summer, but today was particularly miserable and unbearingly hot. He had tied his hair up to keep himself cool and only wore a plain white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows and his usual trousers and boots- he hates to go out into the town without his regular circus attire but he made an exception since it was too bloody hot. The circus leader let out a frustrated sigh and ran his skeleton-like prosthetic through his bright orange hair; he had lost the youngest member of his circus troupe and was growing quite irritated, especially since he and the rest of the troupe had to search for her in the busy town full of people in this damnable heat.

"Damnit! Where did she run off to now?" a very grumpy and overheated Peter shouted.

"Perhaps she went into a sweet shop?" Jumbo suggested, hovering over the group so that they could use his shadow for shade. A unison of groans was the closest thing to a reply the group gave him.

"She could be anywhere by now," Beast huffed as she fluffed her curly hair, which was a poofy mess thanks to the heat and humidity, to cool herself off.

"Right then: Beast, go with Peter 'n Wendy an' search through ev'ry sweet shop north o’ this town. Jumbo, Dagger, and me will take the- Dagger?" Joker whirled around to look for the young knife-thrower who was nowhere to be seen. "Son of a- "

The group collectively groaned louder and cursed.

"We can't go anywhere without losin' one o' the two!" Wendy whined.

The red-head wanted to slam his face against a brick wall. It had been his idea to go into town and tour the area to get a grasp at the type of people the circus would be performing for, but now thanks to him he had lost two of his star performers and it was so hot and he felt like he was drowning in sweat and he was way too tired to deal with this kind of bullshit.

"Oi! We're over 'ere!"

Everyone snapped their heads at the sound of Dagger's voice. The bleached-haired young man waved at them from the entrance of a turquoise painted caravan. _Ah_ , Joker thought. _They were distracted by the Romani people, of course they were_. The ringleader was just relieved that they had found Dagger and, presumably, Doll.

"WHAT THE 'ELL DAGGER?" Beast, on the other hand, was quite angry that they had lost Dagger while searching for Doll. "We turn our backs for not even a minute an’ you're gone the next!

Dagger chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Sorry guys. I went to look for Doll by meself but she found me and told me to come check this out. The lot of you oughtta see this too!" 

Joker examined the caravan the group had walked up to. It had the words "Gypsy's Fortunes" written in curved yellow paint and a mule lounging in the shade the caravan had provided. 

"Miss Gypsy?" Dagger called through the entryway. "'ow many folks do you reckon could fit in 'ere? 

"Probably about twelve at the absolute most," a smooth female voice with a slight unfamiliar accent called back, "but it will be a tight squeeze." 

Joker looked over his shoulder to the rest of the group and gestured for them to follow his lead. He climbed up the steps of the small ladder and brushed past Dagger to walk inside. The interior of the caravan seemed as though it was large enough of one person to comfortably live in and was brightly colored and patterned. Across from where Joker stood was a bed with several blankets folded on top of it and several decorated pillows and cabinets beneath it. To the left was a shelf with cabinets for what Joker could only assume was food, with a tiled-off section beneath it where a kettle was held above a fire pit. To the right was a small coffee table that held two empty tea cups in front of a rather plush but small couch pushed up against the wall beneath the window. 

Doll was sitting on the couch next to a rather attractive young woman with smooth darkened skin and straight black hair tied back by a red scarf. Her most striking feature was her bright green eyes that contrasted greatly with her darker skin, and they gleamed with interest at the strangers entering her home. She was wearing a dress with white sleeves that fell off her shoulders and was incredibly colorful, something Joker thought suited the circus well. He noticed that she held a deck of tarot cards in her hands with some cards splayed out across the table in a circle and Doll's excited expression. He could hear the footsteps of the other members walking in behind him, Jumbo grunted as his massive height forced him to hunch over to fit into the caravan. 

"What's going on in 'ere? Card tricks?" 

Doll, who had been facing away from the door, jumped a bit at Joker's voice and flinched at the glares she was receiving from Peter, Wendy, and Beast. She laughed nervously and scratched her cheek guiltily. 

"Sorry for running off on ya, but you've gotta see this! A genuine fortune teller she is!" 

The young woman laughed at the freckle-faced girl's comment, Joker rose a curious brow. 

"Ohh, genuine aye? 'ow's about I observe 'ere then? I do run a circus an’ we're always looking for new talent." 

The dark woman moved over on the couch and patted the now empty space next to her. 

"No need to be shy, all are welcome to watch." She gestured over to a stack of a few chairs on the other side of the couch and some extra pillows laying on her bed. "Please, feel free to make yourselves at home." 

Joker smiled at her invitation and helped himself to the seat that she had offered next to herself. Beast's eyes darted between Joker and the dark woman before she huffed and pulled up a chair to sit next to Doll, Dagger promptly pulled his own chair next to her. Jumbo, Peter, and Wendy had settled themselves on the floor in front of the coffee table. 

"I take it that yer name's Gypsy, judgin’ by the fancy words that're on the side o' the caravan," Joker guessed. 

The woman nodded. 

"Should I make you some tea? I know that it's hot outside, but I always offer tea to onlookers." They all shook their heads and she nodded. "Very well. As it has been established my name is Gypsy and I am a fortune teller." She gestured to the tarot cards she held. "I am able to predict a person's fortune by palmistry, tasseography, or by tarot card readings. Normally I charge a hefty fee for these predictions, but Miss Doll here was just so cute and curious that I am giving her fortune readings for free." She affectionately patted Doll's cheek, which made Joker smile. 

"’ow ‘bout crystal balls?" Peter asked as he lounged back against Jumbo. "I thought gypsies were famous for that." 

Wendy smacked Peter's arm for his vulgarity and Joker frowned at him. Gypsy only waved her hand and scoffed. 

"Serying is such a theatrical way of fortune telling. It's difficult to get a proper reading from the blurry images of a crystal ball." 

"Eh?" Joker turned to her with a mockingly confused look. "But I thought that sort of reading would be… _crystal clear_." 

He saw the chance and he took it by the throat. 

Beast, Peter, and Wendy groaned at their leader's pun as he sat there giggling to himself along with Dagger and Doll. Gypsy and Jumbo let out a snort before she turned her attention back to her tarot cards. 

"Alright Miss Doll, I need you to shuffle the deck of cards please. This is so the cards can sense your energy and perform the reading as accurately to you as possible." The freckle-faced girl was happy to shuffle the cards and quickly did so, though not without almost dropping the cards everywhere. "Now," Gypsy took the cards back, "is there any particular question that you have in mind?" 

Doll thoughtfully pressed her forefinger to her lip, her blue eye that was not covered by her mousy brown hair trailed upward. 

"Well, there is this dream that I'll 'ave every once in a while. Can you do dream interpretations too?" 

Gypsy smiled and nodded. 

"I certainly can. I can interpret all kinds of things, depending on the question being asked. There are a wide variety of different spreads that I read since there are so many questions someone could ask me. You don't have to tell me the specifics of the dream, the cards already know that. All I need you to do now is to select three cards," she splayed the cards out for the girl to take, all of them face-down so that no one could see. 

Joker curiously watched as Doll selected her three cards and handed them back to the woman, who then set them down on the table in front of them for everyone to watch. 

"This first card represents the relevance of the dream when applied to real life. The second card represents the lessons your dream is teaching you. And this last card represents how you can apply the lessons of this dream to your daily life. Are you ready?" 

She didn't need to ask Doll twice as she nodded eagerly, practically bouncing in her seat on the couch she was so excited. Gypsy then flipped the cards over, one at a time, and sat in silence for a while as she stared at them with concentration knitting her brow. 

"What do they mean, then?" 

"Patience Doll," Beast scolded. "Let her take a minute to sort it out." 

A couple more moments of silence passed before the fortune teller spoke. 

"You have nothing to fear," she then tapped on the card on the farthest left. "This first card is the Three of Cups. You are a very creative and friendly person, accepting of everyone and eager to build friendships." 

Joker smiled at Gypsy's words, they were certainly like Doll so far. 

"The dream is trying to teach you about the cautions of being so naïve and blindly trusting of others, represented by the Reversed Fool," her hand hovered over the center card. "If you continue to be so quick to forgive you may experience a painful betrayal and will be quite hurt by new friends who might try and use you. And this last card, the Page of Swords, tells me that you are talkative, energetic, and mentally restless." 

"Did the cards tell you that or did you figure that one out for yourself?" Peter snidely commented, still irritated from losing Doll and the heat. 

Gypsy simply ignored the comment while a few quite snorts fell from the others. 

"The lesson you should take from this dream is that you should be cautious when meeting new people. Kindness certainly isn't a bad thing, but naïvety can be dangerous." 

Doll sat there staring at the cards with her mouth agape while Joker let out a low whistle. 

"Didja really get all tha' from jus' three cards?" 

"That and simply from spending time with Miss Doll," Gypsy replied as she gathered her cards. "Why, I was sitting in the shade with my mule and playing my lyre when this little one noticed me," she rustled Doll's hair affectionately. "I needed the company, and Miss Doll is such a bright and curious girl, so I didn't mind showing her what I knew."

The aforementioned girl giggled at the compliment and leaned forward in her seat to talk to Joker. 

"Can she join the circus then? You've seen her read my fortune, she's amazin’!" 

Joker stroked his chin thoughtfully. 

"Do 'ee attract a lot of attention with yer readin’s then?" 

"Certainly," the woman replied with a nod. "My most popular reading is tea leaves since they are easier to read on a day-to-day basis."

The redhead pursed his lips out thoughtfully. 

"While the readin’s would be good for attractin' a crowd before the show, I need to know if 'ee can perform an act. Anything ye can do in front of a 'uge crowd?" 

Gypsy shrugged. 

"I can perform contortions." Joker's eyes lit up. "My people often perform dances for festivals and the like." 

The ringleader grinned. 

"Right then, I s'pose I could let ‘ee audition for a spot in the Noah's Ark Circus." 

Gypsy's eyebrows shot up in shock. 

"Noah's Ark? I had no idea you were from such a well-known circus." 

Joker laughed a little as he and the rest of the troupe began to stand up. 

"Well we've certainly grown a name for ourselves over the years." 

"Oh, there's no need for you all to stand up. I could give you all a ride back to your camp. It's hot outside and I should make up for distracting your two members and making you all wander around town." 

Everyone gave her an appreciative smile as they all plopped back down into their original seats and positions as Gypsy made her way out of the caravan. 

"Ain't she a sweet one," Beast said rather dryly as she moved to take the vacant seat between Joker and Doll. 

"At least she's not makin' us walk all the way back in this hellish heat," Wendy called as she leaned back against Jumbo. 

The troupe could hear Gypsy's muffled voice as she shouted something that was definitely not English. Joker curiously peeked through the window behind him and saw that Gypsy was trying to push her mule up from his position of lounging in the shade. 

"Bo," she whined with a laugh as she tried to push him up from behind. The mule only snorted at her attempts. 

Joker and the rest of the troupe laughed at the scene, though he stood up and crossed the room to the pantry. 

"Donkeys like carrots, yeah?" 

"Yeah, why?" Doll called back as she helped herself to laying on the entire couch, resting her legs across Beast’s lap. 

Joker didn't respond and only moved to the door, where he noticed that the caravan was set up like a carriage, and began to wave the carrots. 

"Oi, Bo!" 

The mule turned his head lazily towards Joker's voice and almost immediately stood up when he saw the orange treat the man was dangling out for him, though he knocked Gypsy into the ground as he stood. 

“Are ‘ee alright?” Joker called from the porch, holding the carrots away from the nipping teeth of the eager mule. 

Gypsy laughed as she stood up and straightened herself out. 

“I’m fine, Bo’s harmless!” 

Joker guided the mule to stand in front of the caravan. She then connected the turquoise bars to a saddle which she situated on Bo's back easily and whispered something to him while patting his side. Joker passed her the carrots which were then fed to the mule. Gypsy hauled herself onto the porch and took a seat with the reigns in her hands, and her green eyes shined dazzlingly in the sun. 

"Thank you for your help, Mister Joker." 

Her formality was so alien to him that he had to laugh as he settled himself to sit next to her. 

"Just call me Joker, no need for fancy titles or anythin’." 

"Would you mind giving me directions to your camp?" She asked, still holding the reigns up in her hands. 

"Certainly," he replied with an awkward laugh, "it ain't too far from 'ere. Take a left at the end o' the street there." 

The caravan shook as it finally began to move, rattling as Bo pulled it along. Joker could hear the other first stringers talking inside behind him, but he was perfectly content sitting with his new companion. 

“So, what exactly do each of you do for your circus?” Gypsy asked, though her eyes were concentrated on the road ahead of them. 

“Well, Doll is our tight-rope walker, Dagger is our knife-thrower, that big fellow is our fire-breather, the two little ones are our trapeze artists, the woman is our animal tamer, an’ I’m the ring leader.” 

Gypsy nodded. 

"Why did you choose to start a circus of all things, if you don't mind me asking?" 

"I don't mind the question at all, I get asked that a lot as a matter o' fact. Well y'see, all us came from the East End and grew up together as children," he jutted his thumb at his crew. "Like a family we are. Eventually some nobleman came to us, took us in with 'im, gave us new arms and legs, and 'elped us fund the Noah's Ark Circus. We want to make people merry an' forget their 'ardships." 

Gypsy smiled and let out a pleased hum. Joker turned his head slightly to look at her. 

"I've got a question for ‘ee," she nodded, so he continued. "Why are 'ee traveling all by yerself? I thought that Romani folk like to travel in big groups together?"

Her lips melted into a rather bitter frown and Joker felt his heart sink at the sight. 

"I was kicked out of my camp because my people believe that I am a witch," she responded before he could apologize and take the question back. "I was originally born in France, but we travelled all over Europe and I eventually picked up on the trade of fortune telling. But I was also born as a seer,” she looked to Joker with a cheeky grin. “That means that I can see into the distant future and accurately predict what will happen.” 

Joker suddenly grew interested in his new friend. 

“That’s mighty interestin’! I’d only ‘eard ‘bout it in stories, but I guess I’ll ‘ave a chance to see it for meself!” 

Gypsy laughed a little before continuing with her story. 

"Problems did not start arising at first; fortune telling is a way that many Romani people make their living. But one day I made a prediction about someone's death which came true and was banished- half of the people thought I was the one who murdered him while the other half thought that I cursed him." She chuckled rather darkly, "didn't help that I was not particularly fond of this man, my father wanted me to marry him before he died. But at least they gave me this caravan and good old Bo here," she reached out and patted the mule affectionately. 

Joker felt his heart sink deeper, if it could do that. 

"'ee travelled all the way from France? Why're 'ee in England of all places then?" He then pointed with his right hand, which Gypsy seemed to regard curiously. "Oh, ye're goin' to take a right up 'ere, then another left 'round the corner." 

Gypsy nodded at his instructions. 

"I didn't want to risk running into my family if I went to France, and England is the second best option for travelers. Besides, I've heard that the Romani people who have settled here are more welcoming and friendly- I was actually on my way to Covent Garden." She then turned her head and looked at him. "You said you were from the East End, yeah? Perhaps I've seen you there before?" 

Joker grinned at the memories that came to mind. He and the rest of the first-stringers would go to Covent Garden back when they were living on the streets. During the summer Romani people from all over would come to pick all sorts of berries and vegetables until early September. He remembered living in a small hut, laughing with the others and feasting on the only real source of food they would ever get the rest of the year. The Romani people didn't even mind that they were all "broken", they were just glad for the extra help no matter what form it took. They unfortunately hadn't visited Covent Garden ever since Father took them in, and they especially didn't have the time to go because of the circus. Perhaps he should consider making the time. 

"Aye, we might've seen each other." 

As the caravan turned the second corner they spotted the array of brightly colored tents as well as the loudness of the beloved circus. 

"I take it that this is your camp then?" Gypsy asked playfully as she pointed at the large sign above the fairground with 'Noah's Ark Circus' painted in fancy-looking yellow lettering. 

"Aye, this be it," Joker peered through the doorway from over his shoulder and called to his group. "Oi! We've reached the camp now, so best we prepare for the audition once we've stopped." 

The troupe members, some of them dozing off during the ride, merely grunted a response. The caravan was lead through the camp and was stopped in front of the large blue practice tent. 

"Right then, Gypsy," Joker practically leaped off the porch and onto the dirt below him, then turned to face Gypsy as she hopped out of the caravan and held his arms out in a grand gesture. "I welcome 'ee to the grandest circus troupe in all o' England. Welcome to the Noah's Ark Circus!" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to add a comment if you'd like: if you like the newer version or the older version, any suggestions for making this story better, or anything at all! Comments and kudos help me to become a better writer, so I would gladly appreciate them! :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The audition begins!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, not a whole lot of major changes to this chapter.

Joker stood with his arms held out rather dramatically, ignoring the odd looks some of the other circus members were giving him. 

“Yeah, yeah. We know who we are, just be quick about this audition, yeah?” Peter said as he hopped out of the caravan, turning to help Wendy step out as well.

Gypsy waited until everyone was out before detaching Bo from the caravan, tossing his saddle onto the front porch, and patting his back.

“Oh!! I can take ‘im!” Doll suddenly called out, hurrying up to the Romani woman and reaching out for Bo’s reigns. “I’ll put ‘im with the horses and take real good care of him for ya!”

The young girl had already lead the mule away before Gypsy could even respond. Joker laughed and gently patted her shoulder.

“She certainly wants 'ee to be part of the circus, don’t she? Best not let her down, eh?”

The young woman smiled and nodded.

“I’ll certainly do my best.”

Joker beamed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, she was just short enough for the top of her head to be a comfortable chin rest if he wanted, and led her into the practice tent, which was now vacant of people aside from Beast, Wendy, Peter, and Dagger who told the trainees to leave to allow privacy for the audition.

“But what about my caravan?” Gypsy asked as she looked over her shoulder. “Would it be alright to just leave it where it could get in the way?”

Dagger came up and waved his hand dismissively.

“Don’t worry about that, Jumbo’s probably movin' it now. So Boss,” he referred to Joker, “what’re you goin’ to have her do first?”

The ringleader placed his hands on his hips and hummed thoughtfully.

“'ee said ‘ee could perform contortions, ain't that right?” Gypsy nodded and he nodded in turn. “Well, I’ll ‘ave 'ee walk on that tightrope as the first part of yer audition. ‘ee’ll be pretty much usin' all the same sorts o’ muscles anyway, yeah?”

He pointed up at the tightrope, which was a good six meters from the ground, and chuckled at her nervous facial expression.

“Shouldn’t there be a safety net?” She asked.

“Don’t need one,” Wendy piped up. “If you do it right you won’t fall. Lots of pressure on you to not break your neck, so you best do it right on your first go.”

Joker guided her to the ladder, the smile never once leaving his face.

“When ye’re performing there ain’t no safety net. No need to worry though, I’ll be with 'ee to make sure 'ee don’t fall.”

The woman nodded as she was practically dragged over to the ladder. Joker grabbed hold of the rungs of the ladder and began to climb upwards, figuring that he oughtta climb first so that he wouldn’t risk looking up her skirt. He glanced down to make sure that Gypsy was climbing up after him and grinned when he saw that she was. After a few moments of climbing Joker made it up to the platform, crossing over to the tightrope and removed his boots. He had to laugh as Gypsy made it up to the platform, doubled over with labored breathing.

“Winded already? 'ee ‘aven’t even started walkin' 'cross the tightrope yet.”

Gypsy held up a finger as she attempted to catch her breath and toed her own shoes off when she saw that Joker was barefoot.

“I’m not very physically active, I’m afraid.” She eyed the tightrope suspiciously, “so how are you planning on making this work, exactly?”

“It’s simple,” Joker stood up and gestured down the tightrope to the platform on the opposite side of them, “just walk across this ‘ere tightrope and ‘ee’ll ‘ave passed the first part o’ yer audition.”

“Oi!” Doll called up to them. “Are you walkin' on it with her?”

“’ow else am I gonna prevent her from fallin'?” Joker called back cheerily.

Dagger whistled, the sound echoed through the empty space of the tent.

“’elping her out with her audition are you? You must really want her to join the circus if you’re willin' to do that!”

Unbeknownst to Joker and Gypsy, Beast was glaring harshly at the younger woman- Joker hadn’t done this sort of thing with anyone before, so why do it now?

“Alright everyone, I’m going to need you all to be quiet so we can concentrate,” Joker called down to the lot. He then faced Gypsy, took her hand in his, and guided her onto the tightrope as he walked backwards. “Now, in order to keep ‘ee from fallin’, I’m gonna need 'ee to old on to me- I ain’t gonna letcha fall. I want 'ee to keep yer breathing calm an’ steady, concentrate on me, an’ walk slowly with the balls o’ yer feet. Understand?” Though her bright green eyes looked uncertain she pressed her lips together in a thin line and nodded, Joker grinned. “Right then, ‘ere we go.”

He stepped backwards onto the cool thin wire, lightly gripping Gypsy’s hands to help maintain his balance while she was still on the platform. She nervously placed one foot onto the tightrope, gripping onto his forearms tightly and trembled as she tried to keep her balance and place her other foot on the rope.

“Relax, ye’re doin’ just fine,” Joker reassured gently. “I’ll let 'ee take a moment to get used to the feel o' the tightrope, an' remember that I ain’t gonna letcha fall. Keep yer chest up an' out, keep yer center as tight as possible,” he clapped his own abdomen to demonstrate what he meant, “an' the most important thing is rememberin’ to breathe.”

Gypsy obediently kept her eyes on Joker, the death-grip she had on his forearms loosened as she got used to standing on the tightrope. He smiled warmly.

“Now we’re gonna start walkin', alright? It ain’t no different than walkin' down the street, so let’s take this nice an' slow yeah?” He slowly took a step backward as she took her step forward, he could already feel his muscles tighten and knew that they would be sore tomorrow- it had been quite some time since he’s last had to do this. “Avoid usin' yer toes. It’s a funny thing to get used to but they can get all caught up on the wire.”

She nodded at his instructions, though she was tempted to take a glance down at her feet. As she took another step she felt herself start to slip a bit and let out a sharp gasp, her death grip on his forearms returned and Joker laughed a little at her expression and the feeling of her nails lightly digging into the flesh of his left arm.

“Watch it now,” he helped her quickly regain her balance. “See? Since I’m with 'ee there’s no way ye’re goin’ to fall.”

He certainly tried his best to remain supportive and soothing throughout the ordeal. As they continued to walk along the tightrope her hold on his forearms slipped down into his hands, they were even able to walk at a slightly faster pace. Soon enough they reached the opposite platform and Gypsy let out a breathless laugh upon realizing that she made it across, the red-head smiled at the sight.

“'ee see? 'ee did so well!”

Glancing down Joker saw that only Doll and Dagger had stayed to watch the audition, the others had left some time while they were walking, which was a shame since they wouldn’t be able to see how well she had been doing so far.

“Oi, Dagger!” He called down with his hands cupped around his mouth, the bleached-haired lad looked up. “Could 'ee fetch the jugglin’ balls from the back for me please?” Dagger swung his arm and gave him a thumbs up as he headed towards the back, “thanks!”

“You’re doing great Gypsy!” Doll shouted to her.

The Romani woman had been slightly bouncing on her heels as adrenaline pumped through her and she waved down at the younger girl.

“Wait,” she abruptly stilled and shot a glance down the tightrope. “Our shoes are on the other platform, and it wouldn’t make much sense to climb down this platform and then climb onto the other one…”

Joker’s grin spread wider across his face, she caught on to his plan quickly. He spun her around so that she once again faced the tightrope and placed his hands on her shoulders. 

“Ain’t 'ee a perceptive one? ‘ee’re gonna walk all the way back to the opposite platform, but this time I ain’t gonna be holdin' onto 'ee the whole time. ‘ee’ll ‘ave to show me that 'ee can make it on yer own, but I’ll be behind 'ee to make sure 'ee won’t fall. This time 'ee need to keep yer arms out to yer sides as straight as possible to help 'ee balance, an' remember everythin’ I told 'ee to do earlier.”

The dark woman mumbled something under her breath, Joker assumed that she was either cursing or saying a quick prayer, and slowly stepped onto the tightrope once again with the ring leader following suit. He watched her carefully as they walked along the wire, taking mental note of the tiny mistakes she occasionally made. He was pleased with how quick of a learner she was and was glad to see they made it to the first platform without a single issue. He clapped as he plopped himself down once again to pull his boots back onto his feet.

“Bravo Gypsy! 'ee passed the first part of the audition, well done!”

Gypsy pulled her own boots on as well, though she gave him a curious look.

“How are you so good at tightrope walking?”

Joker grinned at her as he stood up.

“If I can’t walk on a tightrope, then what sort o' ringleader would I be? I ‘ave to know how to do the basics, o' course.” He then bounded over to the ladder, “come, come! We still ‘ave the rest of yer audition to complete!”

The young man practically slid down the ladder, he was glad that this newcomer had been showing such promise so far.

“’ere are those balls you asked for,” Dagger called as he placed the small crate down on a nearby bench. He then turned to Joker with a sly smirk. “I ain’t seen you walk the tightrope with an auditionee before, you must really fancy her if you’re willing to do that!”

Doll came up to Joker’s side and playfully elbowed his ribcage.

“Am I a great match maker or what?”

Joker scoffed at the girl, rolling his eyes and playfully placing his left hand over her face and pushing her away.

“I was just testin' out a safer way for auditionees to walk across the tightrope. An’ besides,” his expression suddenly turned serious, almost sad, and his voice deepened as he spoke in his normal Cockney British accent rather than his cheery Irish one, “even if I did fancy ‘er, I doubt that Father would be pleased with it. I can’t afford that type of luxury with everythin' we’ve done.”

The other two seemed slightly taken back by his sudden change of tone and shifted their saddened gaze downward in understanding. Dagger then straightened out, putting on his usual bright smile.

“Well, I’m gonna go find Beast,” Joker laughed, he could practically see the hearts forming around the younger man as he spoke.

“Yeah, I’ll head out too,” Doll said, “I’m gonna go grab somethin' to snack on.” She turned around and began to walk backwards as she waved to Joker and Gypsy, “good luck with the rest of the audition you two!”

Gypsy had finally made it down the ladder and walked so that she stood next to Joker, then waved to Doll. Dagger smirked again as he looked back over his shoulder to the two.

Oh, I’m sure she’ll make it in. No way Joker’s gonna letcha fail since he-“

“Off with 'ee now!” Joker chided as he shooed the giggling youngsters out of the tent, then strode back over to where the crate of balls sat. Gypsy stood a bit away from the crate, holding her arms behind her back and swaying herself in a slight circle as she waited for him.

“So what’s next? I think I heard something about juggling?”

Joker nodded as he reached into the crate and pulled out three colorful balls.

“Aye, I’ll be testing yer ‘and-to-eye coordination next,” he handed the balls to her. “'ee know ‘ow to juggle, yeah?”

Gypsy nodded and began to juggle the three balls she was given, her green eyes concentrating carefully on them. Joker seated himself next to the crate and watched her for a bit.

”’ere’s another one for ya!”

He tossed another ball to her, laughing as she faltered for a bit before getting the hang of the fourth.

“Don’t get comfortable jus' yet! 'ere comes another one!”

It continued like this for some time; Joker would toss a ball when he felt that she had gotten the hang of it, she would falter a bit and slowly get accustomed to it. Once Joker tossed the sixth ball Gypsy tripped trying to catch it, removing her eyes from the others for just a second, and dropping them all. He couldn’t help but laugh as the brightly colored objects bounced off of her.

“Don’t beat yerself up about it, 'ee did great! Not many auditionees make it past five o’ these balls, an’ even I struggle juggling eight o’ them.” 

He knelt down and helped her gather the balls.

“How many more tests should I look forward to?” Gypsy asked as she stood up with the balls gathered in her arms. Joker stood up as well and walked up to the crate.

“Jus' one more test should do,” he replied as he dumped the balls he was holding into the crate, Gypsy doing the same thing before he picked the crate up. “If 'ee would follow me please, I just need to put this back into storage and then we’ll start yer final test.”

The woman obediently followed him into the storage area behind some curtains towards the back of the tent, and as Joker set the box in place Gypsy curiously looked through some of the boxes filled with all sorts of junk.

“Would 'ee mind taking me into yer caravan for this last test?” he asked, holding a nearby flap of the tent open for her and bowing rather gentlemanly, which made the auditionee giggle.

“Will I be reading your fortune for you as this final test?”

She ducked through the opening and turned to face Joker as he came out after herself. As soon as they were outside he tapped her nose with his ungloved left hand.

“Right on the nose 'ee are. While I did see yer predictions for Doll, I didn’t get to see the other sorts of readings 'ee said 'ee could do. I need to yer showmanship for the customers who come and see 'ee, after all.”

Gypsy’s eyes seemed to glisten excitedly and she nodded once at him, but then she looked around and her face slightly dropped.

“Uh…where would Jumbo have taken my caravan to?”

_Oh right…_

They both shot glances all around the campground for either her mobile home or for Jumbo, luckily Joker was able to easily spot the turquoise caravan against the orange of the second-tier members’ sleeping tents.

“There it is.”

The woman looked relieved as she spotted her home and they both quickly slipped through the sea of orange until they were in front of the colorful caravan. Gypsy then faced Joker with a serious expression on her face.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this reading? I will not put up with skeptics or non-believers, nor will I tolerate rude comments during these readings. These are intended for those with an open mind and an open heart.”

Joker was slightly taken aback by her sudden change of demeanor and glanced between her and the caravan before smiling.

“Absolutely.”

Gypsy smirked at him rather slyly, climbing up the steps of her caravan and opening the door. She looked at him from over her shoulder and crooked her finger at him as an invitation.

“Well, why don’t you come in then?”

Joker entered the already familiar environment and seated himself on the couch as Gypsy began to busy herself with preparations. She lit a fire for her kettle and lit a thick white branch as well, which she walked around the room with and filled the small space with smoke as she chanted in what he could only assume was her native language. The ringleader coughed a bit and his eyes watered from the smoke. Gypsy smiled at him apologetically.

“Sorry for all this, but you said you wanted showmanship. I burn sage in order to prevent evil spirits from disrupting the readings.” She then snuffed the branch out and crossed over to her small cupboard to set up the tea. “For the tea readings I don’t filter out the tea leaves, so you’ll need to be careful when drinking.” Gypsy finally sat next to him and held her hand out. “Now, while we wait for the water to boil I’ll go on ahead with your palm reading.”

Joker was about to give her his right hand, but then he paused and laughed.

“S’pose ye’ll wanna look at me real ‘and then.”

As soon as their hands touched he could have sworn that he felt a sudden jolt that nearly made him take his hand back. His heart began to flutter in his chest. He lifted his eyes to look at her and see if she had a similar reaction, only to find that her eyes were focusing on his palm. Now that he was sitting this close to her he was able to study her face properly: long dark eyelashes fanned over her cheeks as she looked down at his palm and framed her jade colored eyes, her lips were pressed into a taut line as she concentrated, her nose was quite cute and perky, and her hair which he initially believed to be black was actually a lovely dark chocolate brown with strands that looked nearly like caramel in the sunlight that shone through her window. His heart thumped a little when she looked up at him with a smile.

“With palmistry every wrinkle and crease in your hand means something. Each of your fingers represents a planet: your pinkie is Mercury, then Apollo the sun, then Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus as your thumb.” Joker nodded for her to continue, “this right here is your Life Line, which is surprisingly short,” he frowned at that. “Your Heart Line is curved and broken, indicating that while you are under heavy stress as well as emotional trauma, you are a very physical and emotional young man who can easily expresses his emotions.”

Now Joker understood Doll’s fascination with the young woman.

“Blimey,” he muttered under his breath, to which Gypsy responded with a chuckle as she continued to trace her finger all along his palm, tickling him slightly.

“This is your Head Line, see how it slopes? That tells me you are romantic, creative, and idealistic. You are open to new ideas and are not afraid to investigate new concepts or beliefs, and you trust your intuition.” She then traced her own finger from the edge of his wrist and up to the base of his ring finger, “your Fate Line tells me that you are content with your life at the circus, but you also have someone who is controlling you and preventing you from achieving true happiness. This line becomes broken and tells me that you must be wary of this man, for he will lead you to your death should you continue to follow him.”

Joker felt a quick surge of panic course through him, everything that she has said so far has been spot on. Does she really know? No, of course not. Father would have told him if he knew her, and the troupe never leaves any witnesses. He threw on a smile and laughed a little.

“Goodness, seems a wee bit morbid if 'ee ask me. Is this ‘ow 'ee scare yer customers away?”

“Not at all,” Gypsy replied and waved him off with her left hand. “There needs to be good to balance out the bad in your life, so something good may happen to you someday. Ha! Here we go,” she cheered. “Your Line of Apollo tells me that your circus will continue to be a great success. Your troupe is quite creative and insightful, no doubt the reflection of a very good leader.”

She made eye contact with him for the first time during the palm reading and playfully winked at him. Joker grinned at her back.

“I s'ppose that could be true, but I ain’t the troupe leader. I’m just the peirott I’m afraid. Our troupe leader is the one who helps finance the circus, but is terrifyin’ if 'ee get on his bad side. We circus folk gotta be creative in order to perform, ‘ee know?”

Gypsy nodded before shifting her attention back to his hand, now tracing her slender fingers over his wrist.

“These Bracelet Lines indicate that you will have a very good and healthy life,” she then looked up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “This next line is your Relationship Line.” Joker scoffed, he certainly had no time for intimacy right now. “This tells me that you will become quite attached to your partner, although it doesn’t look like romance is a significant part of your life.” Her finger then ran along the base of his pinkie finger. “The lines are short but strong, which may parallel your future relationships.”

He let out a bark of a laugh.

“Unfortunately for me I ain’t got much time to spend on the luxury of a relationship. Dagger’s crush on Beast is troublesome enough as it is.”

Gypsy merely shrugged.

“I’m just listing all of the possibilities,” she laughed slightly. “And I can see that your Children Line says you will have at least one child born out of wedlock,” she looked up at the young man and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, and Joker held his prosthetic hand up as he laughed.

“Ohhh no, none for me. I may be no blushin’ virgin but I’ve certainly been careful so there ain’t no little Jokers runnin' 'round.”

The Romani woman laughed, snorting slightly-which in turn made Joker laugh.

“That was adorable!!” he certainly was a sucker for cute laughs.

Gypsy blushed and snorted again. After a few more minutes of laughing she finally settled down enough to continue the reading, though both of their bellies ached and thin streams of tears had trickled down their cheeks.

“Continuing where we left off; your Health Line is this line that runs from your thumb and pinkie. Though it looks like you suffered some illness in your past life, you are quite healthy now. Your Girdle of Venus tells me that you are a calm person who keeps his temper in check. I can see you don’t have an Intuition Line- which isn’t a bad thing, it just indicates that you are comfortable with crowds.”

She perked up once she heard the whistle of her tea kettle and quickly stood up to prepare the tea, quickly coming back with the two cups.

“Alright, your Ring of Jupiter,” she took a quick sip of her tea before she continued talking. “You are a very strong and responsible leader, which is to be expected of course. You are intelligent, respected, and are very thoughtful and tolerant of others.” She only slightly frowned as she touched the base of his middle finger. “Most people who have a Ring of Saturn tend to be unhappy, overly serious, and don’t live their life to the fullest. It is not commonly found on people who are so happy, so it’s a little odd seeing that you have one.”

Joker shifted a bit in his seat, she was crossing into some rather personal territory. Gypsy seemed to notice and rose a curious eyebrow, to which he responded with an apologetic smile as he lifted his tea cup to his lips.

“Sorry for moving so much, I get a bit antsy if I sit still for too long.”

She nodded.

“Don’t worry, I only have a couple more lines to check and then we’ll start on the tea leaves.” She glanced down at his palm one more time. “It doesn’t look like you have a Ring of Apollo, which means that you do have a pretty positive outlook on life.” Joker grinned at her comments, finding this whole reading interesting. “You have a variety of differently shaped lines on your palm that indicates a rather tragic past- feelings of insecurity and stress. These dotted lines on your palm are especially worrying since they usually indicate you are in a bad relationship. Whatever it is that you’re going through may ultimately lead to your death.” She then held his hand in her own two, which were warm and soft. “But they can disappear in time if you are able to overcome these obstacles. You also have triangles, which are very good. They represent good luck and tells me that you are able to analyze situations very carefully and well.”

She then patted his hand and turned her attention to her tea. Joker stood up to stretch and relieve his cramping legs.

“’ow long does it normally take to read people’s fortunes?”

She thoughtfully took another sip of tea.

“It depends on the type of fortune as well as the person. The readings can take anywhere between ten to thirty minutes. I’ve even had customers take more than an hour to complete their readings- they had trouble comprehending the meaning of their tea leaves and argued about what they thought it meant.”

Joker laughed as he picked up his tea cup. They sat in comfortable silence as they drank their tea. Joker smiled and sat back down, noticing how easy it was to talk with this young woman and how relaxed he felt around her. After a couple more moments of silence he had run out of tea, Gypsy seemed to notice.

“May I see your cup?” she stood up and moved over so that she could see into his cup, he handed it over to her so she could see properly. She swirled the small amount of liquid around the cup three times and waited for it to settle. “This symbol at the very rim of the cup near the handle indicates that you experienced poverty in your past, something that you told me that you overcame. This symbol up by the rim on the other side of the handle shows your present, and the symbol is a lyre. This means that you will find happiness in love- and despite you telling me that you don’t have an interest in romance, remember that nothing is impossible,” she didn’t let Joker interrupt her. “And the gramophone shape indicates that you will experience pleasure within this relationship, this area underneath the rim represents your near future.”

As much as Joker wanted to protest against her love predictions he held his tongue. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought about how he may give her a chance, but then shook his head to rid himself of the thought. He couldn’t spare the time for something so intimate, especially after everything he and the rest of the circus members had done under the cover of night. All of the terrible things he had to do for Father. And even if he was in a relationship, he wouldn’t be able to hide her from Father, or vice versa. He hadn’t realized that he was so deep in thought until Gypsy’s hand waved over his face.

“Joker? Are you alright?”

He blinked upon hearing his name and smiled at her.

“I’m fine, just tuckered out I s'pose.”

Gypsy nodded and looked back at the cup.

“I understand, luckily we’re almost done with the readings. This area directly in front of the handle represents yourself. This pear shape says that you are comfortable with the circus life…” she let out a hum and pressed her crooked finger to her lips. “This is strange; I haven’t seen a broken pear before.” She looked up with a concerned expression on her face. “While the pear normally indicates comfort, the broken lines indicate that you are actually not comfortable with your current situation. You are being deceived, possibly by the person from your palm reading, and if you continue to allow this you will be lead to this scythe- which will lead to death.” She looked at him, her lips pulled into a concerned frown, “I haven’t had someone have two death warnings in their predictions before...this is interesting...”

Joker felt a chill run down his spine at the end of her prediction, Gypsy merely finished the last of her tea and gathered the two cups.

“But, this may not be your definite future,” she seemed to sense his unease and gave him a comforting grin before she rinsed out the two dishes. “So, what do you think? Have I made it into the circus?”

When Joker didn’t give a reply, she looked over her shoulder at him with a curious look in her piercing eyes. He was instead thinking rather deeply, replaying her presentation during the entire audition. She would need to improve her tightrope walking as well as her juggling, but her fortune telling would draw quite a crowd in if he offered it as a pre-show attraction. And then there was the contortions, he would have to see that in the practice tent someday. With a smile he stood up and placed his hands on his hips.

“Aye, I’d say that ‘ee’re right fit for the circus.” Gypsy turned to him and a smile spread across her face. “An’ ‘onestly 'ee already took care o’ yer stagename for me, ain’t no use in changin’ it now that everyone already knows who 'ee are.” He then held his prosthetic hand out for her to shake, “welcome aboard, Gypsy.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joker sets Gypsy up as a member of the circus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for not posting this earlier. My sister's been needing my laptop for school, so I haven't really had the chance to upload or work on writing anything. Anyways, there have been more major changes in this particular chapter when compared to the original version.

Gypsy glanced down at his hand briefly before a smile stretched across her face and she eagerly shook it. The Pierrot looped his arms around her shoulders after they stepped out of her caravan.

“Now that ‘ee’ve got a stage name, we oughtta give 'ee a costume so that 'ee blend in better with the rest o' the performers.”

He guided her back to the main tent and opened a flap, gesturing for her to come inside.

“This is the backstage, where we all touch-up outfits, makeup, or any other sort o' last-minute stuff before goin’ out to perform.”

The room they stood in held three vanities, each holding several jars filled with the colorful waxes and paints for makeup, combs, brushes, scissors, sewing supplies, and a variety of other random objects. Wooden crates lined the walls, each filled with all sorts of props for the acts. Beside the vanities was a long rack of clothes in a variety of colors, designs, and fabrics sectioned off with labels that had the names of the first-tier staff as well as one larger section labelled “etc.”. Beast was hanging up one of her own outfits for a performance when the two entered. The busty woman eyed Gypsy as she stood near Joker, who seemed happy to see her.

“Beast, glad ‘ee’re ‘ere! I need 'ee to 'elp Gypsy pick out a costume for performin’ an’ practin’ in, if 'ee would.”

Beast cocked a brow and placed a hand on her hips.

“I’ll take it she’s made it in then?”

“Why else would I be bringin’ ‘er ‘ere?” Joker said with a laugh which caused Beast the blush slightly in embarrassment. He lightly pushed Gypsy forward and moved to sit in a nearby chair at a vanity to prepare her makeup. “I’ll stay ‘ere an' supervise, but I ain’t gonna look at 'ee while ye’re changin'.”

A twang of jealousy hit Beast's heart, but she did as she was told and gestured Gypsy to stand next her and began to dig through the “etc.” section. She held up a couple of different blouses before shaking her head and muttering to herself, Gypsy is nearly as small as Doll.

“You said somethin’ ‘bout doin’ contortions, yeah?” Gypsy nodded and Beast hummed. “Probably wanna be wearin’ pants or somethin’. Augh, ‘ardly anythin’ is gonna fit you, you’re too small!”

Now Joker and Gypsy frowned.

“Well, I may have something in my caravan…” she was cut off by Beast yanking something off the rack and shoving it into her arms.

“’ere, Peter or Wendy used to wear this suit while performin’ on the trapeze. “

Joker took a moment to examine the one-piece suit. The bottoms and the chest all had a diamond-checkered pattern while the sleeves and abdomen had stripes. Beast was starting to grow impatient, holding onto her shoulder and guiding her to an area behind a curtain where she could change in private.

“‘urry up an’ change, we ain’t got all day.

Gypsy quickly nodded, stripping herself down so she could try on the costume. Beast sucked up any hard feelings for the girl as she helped Gypsy into her costume, which practically fit her like a glove. Beast then drew back the curtain and guided Gypsy to stand in front of a full-body mirror to get a good look at herself.

“Looks good?” Beast asked.

“It looks great, well done Beast,” Joker called from his position across the room, he had occupied himself with getting ready to apply Gypsy’s makeup, setting up a couple of different eyeshadow pots and tins of grease paint along with a few brushes.

The two women turned to Joker who now stood facing them as he was grabbing one of the other stools to place in front of the vanity. Beast blushed a little at Joker complimenting her work before she quickly left. Joker gestured to the stool in front of the vanity he was organizing

“If ‘ee’ll sit ‘ere, I’m just gonna paint yer face for 'ee!”

Gypsy sat on the stool as she untied her bandanna, letting her hair fall onto her shoulders before retying her hair back with her bandanna so that her hair was out of her face. She looked up at Joker and smiled, her green eyes shining in the light. Joker felt his heart skip a beat while he took his seat across from her. Her hair was so pretty when it was taken down, but he forced himself to concentrate on what sort of design she should have. He dipped a brush into one of the tins of red grease paint, he then took her chin in his hand and held it still as he applied the paint to her face. He carefully painted three circles beneath her eyes, making them increase in size the further out they got with the largest painted on her cheekbone. He did this on both sides of her face.

“Pay attention to ‘ow I’m doin’ this, I’ll expect ‘ee to be able to do this on yer own. Can’t do yer makeup and my own if I ‘ave to perform, now can I?”

She laughed, her nose crinkling cutely as she snorted; and it was as if Cupid had struck one of his cruel arrows into Joker’s heart whenever she snorted and taunting him. He wanted to grow to love her, but he knew that he couldn’t even if he did. He doesn’t deserve it. A hand was suddenly waving in front of his face and Joker didn’t realize how deeply he had been thinking as he stared into the concerned jade eyes of the woman the hand belonged to.

“You alright Joker?”

He shook his head to banish his previous thoughts before putting on his usual cheerful smile. He hoped that he wouldn't make a habit of getting lost in his thoughts like this.

“Sorry, I was just thinkin’ ‘bout tonight’s performance.” He continued to apply her makeup on the other side of her face as he spoke.

“There’s a performance tonight?”

“Certainly! We’re only in town for another two nights, so we best make the most of it while we’re 'ere. Close yer eyes please.” He set the grease paint down and reached for a small pot containing the pressed purple powder that he uses to line his own eyes.

“Now I feel bad for taking your time to have me audition when you could have spent it practicing.”

He chuckled as he began to apply the powder with a smaller brush, following along the contours of her eye carefully.

“Nonsense. We ‘ave plenty o' time to prepare. I still need to give 'ee a tour ‘round the place, then spend whatever time after that practicin’ 'til it’s time for the show, an’ lastly I’ll give 'ee yer tent assignment. Open yer eyes now an’ look up.”

Just as he suspected, her lovely eyes brightly stood out against the purple shadow. Her eye twitched as he began to place the shadow along her waterline and under her lashline.

“You have to do go through this every day? It seems exhausting.”

“Well I gotta look me very best in front o' a ‘uge crowd o' people. Trust me, when the circus was just beginnin’ I ‘ated puttin’ on all this makeup. Now I rarely go out an' about without it, it’s become a part o’ me really.”

He set the brush down and leaned back to examine his handiwork. He picked up a cloth and began to rub away the excess powder from her cheeks but ended up accidentally messing up one of the dots he had drawn on her face. Joker glared at the smudge and grumbled to himself as he wiped the red splotch away and replaced it with another circle. He gave her face another look over before he grinned to himself.

“Not too bad if I do say so meself!” He pulled her up from her seat on the stool and stood her in front of a mirror so that she could see the entire look.

He bounced eagerly and glanced between Gypsy’s reflection and Gypsy herself as she took in her new look. She looked surprised at first, but as she adjusted to the look she seemed pleased.

“Do 'ee like it then?” His voice betrayed him by making him sound hopeful. She beamed up at him.

“Yes, I really like the look Joker. You're quite adept at makeup.”

Joker grinned broadly.

“Well it’s wha' I do! I always ‘elp new comers pick out their clothes and design their stage makeup. Now then,” he crossed back over to the tent flap they had entered a while ago, “let’s introduce 'ee to the rest o' the troupe, eh?”

**************************************************************************************************************************************************

Joker stood on a stool at the front of the tent with the newest addition to the troupe standing on the ground beside him, beaming at the faces of the entire circus staff despite the hot and stuffy air caused by the huge number of people being crammed into a tent in the summer. The fact that they were breathing and generally chatting amongst themselves didn’t help to cool them all either. He had retrieved his black cane with a checkered design and a faux diamond on the handle some time ago, waving it in the air to get everyone’s attention.

“Everyone!” The crowd simmered down into silence, curiously staring at the two figures at the front of the room. “I’ve got an exciting’announcement to make. I wanna introduce ‘ee to the newest member of our circus, Gypsy!” He turned to the Romani woman and held his arm out to her. “Come, come! Say hello everyone!”

A chorus of tired sounding “hellos” rang through the tent, Joker frowned at the lack of enthusiasm but dismissed it as he assumed everyone was grouchy because of the heat. He looked to Gypsy and hopped off his stool, extending his hand out to her so that he could help her step onto it in his place. She smiled charmingly and held her hands behind her back.

“Pleased to meet you all.”

**************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Now then, s’ppose I oughtta give 'ee a tour ‘round the place so 'ee don’t get lost. If 'ee would follow me, please.” The two then exited out of the tent and Joker held out his arm towards the orange tents behind them. “Since we’re already near 'em, we’ll start with the tents for the second-tier members,” he led her over to one of the tents and opened the flap to reveal a relatively messy room with a bunk bed on one side and two storage trunks on the other. “Each tent can hold ‘bout two or three people comfortably, don’t wanna cram 'em into tents.”

Gypsy gave him a puzzled look.

“What are second-tier members?”

Joker closed the tent flap and turned to her.

“There is a bit o’ a hierarchy ‘ere. Second-tier members are the folks who help with backstage set-up and preparations durin’ shows, which is where you an’ all other newcomers stand. The first-tier members get to perform in front o’ the crowd, eat first, an’ get their own private tents.” He smiled back at her, “spots are very limited, so 'ee best prepare work hard an' practice if 'ee wanna perform for a crowd.”

She nodded as they began walking.

“And I’m assuming the first-tier members are everyone I met earlier today?”

Joker grinned and nodded.

“Aye!”

“But do I really need a tent if I have my caravan to live in?” she asked with a teasing laugh.

Joker smirked at her.

“O’ course 'ee do! ‘ee’re one o’ us now, so that means ‘ee’re expected to live in a tent like us! But 'ee can be in yer caravan before shows to help entertain guests and read fortunes."

Gypsy laughed and nodded as they approached lavender-colored tents.

“These are the first-tier member tents?”

Doll emerged from one tent, dressed up in a pure white dress with a short and poofy skirt, wearing mismatching knee-high socks and white ballet slippers. In her hands, she held a hat that had large faux white roses curving down to cover the left side of her face when she wore it. Her face held no trace of freckles, a swirling floral design extended across her left cheek, and she wore white false lashes. Overall, she looked as stunning as ever. She noticed the pair and quickly approached them with a smile so bright it could be seen from a kilometer away.

“Gypsy! Joker! Did she make it? Is she part of the circus now?”

Joker reached out with his prosthetic hand and flicked her forehead.

“Why else would I be giving her a tour ‘round the place?”

Doll threw her arms around Gypsy, letting out a happy squeal as she did so.

“See? I knew you would make it in! An' bloody ‘ell, you look fantastic!”

Gypsy laughed and patted the girl’s back. Doll beamed at the woman as they pulled back into an embrace, Joker rose a curious brow and placed a hand on his hip.

“Oi, why are 'ee already in yer performance attire? We ain’t performin' for another few hours.”

Doll chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck.

“I know, but I need Wendy an’ Beast to help fix up me costume an’ I don’t know ‘ow long that’s doing to take. It’s got a big tear in it, see?”

She held up her skirt that had a rather large tear reaching from the bottom of her skirt to halfway up. Joker frowned as he examined the damage, kneeling and taking the skirt in his hand.

“’ow do ‘ee always manage to tear yer costume before a show? If 'ee keep this up it's gonna turn into rags.”

Doll puffed out her cheeks indignantly.

“At least this time I’m takin' it to 'em before the show 'stead of right before I need to go on stage.”

Joker sighed.

“True, true. If I’d known ‘ee would be so rough with yer costume I would’ve given ‘ee a different stage name.”

“That’s what I told you, but no!” Doll whined. “Gave me a girly nickname sayin’ that I’m your ‘precious little sister’.”

Doll pouted, Joker laughed and tousled her hair.

“That ‘ee are, dear one. Off with ‘ee now, get yer costume stitched up ‘ee silly goose.”

Doll waved at the two of them before trotting into one of the other lavender tents. Gypsy watched the exchange with a smile plastered across her face.

“You and the other first-tier members are very close.”

He nodded.

“We’re like a family, us first-tier members. As I’ve told ‘ee, we all grew up on the streets together, dependin’ on one another to survive. It was hard for us, ‘specially since we’re missin’ limbs or have a sort o' deformity,” he waved his prosthetic hand. He grew a bit melancholy as he thought of the painful memories of living in the gutters of the East End, but then he smiled brightly. “But everythin’s fine now, as ‘ee can see. And speakin’ o' missin' limbs, lemme show ‘ee where the medical tent is,” he motioned for her to continue following him to a large green tent. “If ye’re ever feelin’ ill or if 'ee injured yerself, just come right ‘ere. Doc’s one o’ the finest doctors in England an’ he’ll fix ‘ee up in a jiffy. He also makes the prosthetics for those of us without limbs all by 'imself.”

He held the flap open for her and once again followed her into the tent. Typically, more second-tier members would be here during the summer due to overheating or dehydration since they would overexert themselves for a spot as a first-tier member. The tent was a nice and cool get away from the blistering heat of the summer. A man in a wheel chair was finishing up wrapping a sprained ankle for someone when Joker and Gypsy approached him, and he looked up at the two with a polite smile.

“Hello Joker, what can I do for you today? Need me to fix your prosthesis again?” he spoke in a manner that was much more formal than Joker’s own speech.

Joker laughed a little and shook his head.

“No, no, not yet anyway. I was just givin' a tour to our newest member ‘ere, Gypsy, and thought I oughtta introduce ‘ee.”

Doc looked to the young woman.

“Pleasure to meet you Doc,” she stuck her hand out and Doc grasped and shook it.

“Likewise Miss Gypsy,” he removed his spectacles and cleaned them off on his shirt, perched them back upon his nose, and shook out his mess of black hair. “What, may I ask, is your specialty then?”

“Fortune telling and contortions,” she replied easily.

Doc seemed surprised.

“Contortions? Oh dear, you best come in and see me before you practice so that I may help care for your back. We don’t get a lot of contortionists here, but they usually end up straining their spinal cords and general back muscles.”

Gypsy smiled and nodded, Joker patted her shoulder.

“We’ll ‘ave to start watchin' ‘ee carefully if we want ‘ee to stay in good shape, can’t ‘ave ‘ee injured if ‘ee want to be helpful ‘round the circus. Anyway,” he waved to the doctor, “best carry on with the tour, see 'ee Doc!”

They both ducked out of the tent and Joker tapped his cane against his shoulder as he looked around trying to think of what else he needed to show her.

“Ah, right there’s the mess hall,” he gestured to a large canopy filled with tables and a tent behind it. “This where the kitchen is, which is where ‘ee will spend most of yer time outside of practice. Newcomers prepare the meals, but they get to eat with the first-tier members. Then the second-tier members eat and then practice. There are three meals to cook and are divided into three shifts: breakfast before dawn, lunch during midday, and supper a couple o’ hours before the show. Each meal shift takes about three hours to prep, cook, serve, an' clean up. Since ‘ee’re a new member ‘ee’ll ‘ave the pleasure of makin' breakfast, so be prepared to wake up early an’ work hard.”

Gypsy nodded again and Joker paused a bit as she took in her surroundings, then motioned for her to follow him as he walked to the practice tent.

“Movin’ on then. Down there be the bathin’ area. It's mostly co-ed, but most ladies bathe in the evenin' while the gents bathe in the afternoon. There's usually a pump that we use to fill up buckets o’ water and there's bars o’ soap near the entrance. Lastly's the practice tent, an’ the name speaks for itself.”

They entered the tent that was filled with people training for the coveted title of a first-tier member; practicing anything ranging from juggling, tight-rope walking, trapeze, pole climbing, balancing on balls, and ribbon dancing. The area smelled of the musk that came from the sweaty bodies, but Joker didn’t mind it one bit.

“We ‘ave all sorts o’ equipment for any type of talent stored there in the back,” he jutted his cane towards a corner in the back of the tent, finally turning to face her. “Now, I wanna see ‘ee practice some of yer contortions. Like Doc said, we ain’t got many people who can properly move their bodies in that way, so ‘ee best work ‘ard if ye want to be a star.”

Gypsy nodded and her eyes gleamed with determination.

“I’ll try my best.”

Joker patted her shoulder and smiled softly.

“I’m sure ‘ee will.” He reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a pocket watch, humming to himself as he checked the time before slipping it back into his pocket. “It’s two thirty-four now, so I’ve got some time before we need to set up for the performance.” He plopped himself onto the ground, but looked up at Gypsy when she didn’t do the same and patted the space in front of him. “Come, come! I’m sure that ‘ee wanna at least stretch a bit before ‘ee start movin’ ‘round so much.” The young woman nodded and seated herself in front of him, unsure of how to begin her stretches. Joker laughed and held his arms out so she could hold his hands and splayed his legs out, “’ere silly! Get into this same position and grab me ‘ands.”

“Oh,” Gypsy splayed her legs out as well, though she was much more flexible than him, and held his hands just as he instructed.

Joker then readjusted himself so that their feet touched and felt a nice stretch in his hamstrings. Damn, it’s been a while since he’s last done this.

“Feel that stretch? 'ee should start to feel it in yer legs,” Gypsy nodded. “Right, then I’ll start pullin’ ‘ee forward til ‘ee feel stretched out.”

He began to lean backward, pulling her with him as he leaned. They let out a small laugh as he kept pulling her towards him, reaching the point where her face was essentially touching his belly.

“Right, now pull me towards yerself.”

Gypsy struggled a bit, but eventually pulled Joker towards her. He grunted a bit at how Gypsy practically flopped back against the dirt ground behind her, causing him to slightly lurch forward and grunt a bit before laughing.

“Am I doing this right? I’m not getting much of a stretch,” Gypsy remarked as she released him and sat back up.

Joker sighed as he sat up as well, he would certainly be sore tomorrow.

“’ee are, the only problem is I ain’t as flexible as ‘ee! Ye’d probably get a better warm-up with Doll since she’s the most limber out o’ us first-tier folk.” He then stood, and after helping Gypsy to her feet he asked, “feel like ‘ee could move ‘round without hurtin’ yerself? We ain’t got the luxury of takin' our time to stretch.”

Gypsy thoughtfully moved her body around, swinging her arms to twist her torso with her back slightly popping, before she quickly bent backwards into a bridge position with her hands easily touching the heels of her feet. Joker was surprised by the sudden action and whistled as she straightened out.

“Caught me by surprise with that, ‘ee did! Reckon ‘ee’ll make a fine addition to the troupe.”

She smirked at him and playfully rolled her eyes.

“Impressed by that, were you? I’m going to knock your socks off when I get to the real contortions then.”

Joker grinned, enjoying her feisty playfulness.

“Off ‘ee go then, me socks are waitin' to be knocked off.”

After giggling Gypsy once again bent backwards, but this time when her hands were pressed against the ground her legs slowly started to raise up. She held her pose with one leg perpendicular to the ground and the other bent at the knee. Joker clapped as she held the position for a moment before she lowered her torso onto the ground, balancing on her shoulders as she curled her legs over herself and folding them so that her shins rested on the ground and her knees were on either side of her head. She held her arms out and remained in that position for a few seconds as Joker once again clapped, Dagger joining him this time.

“Blimey, don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in a position quite like that before!”

The young woman eventually straightened herself out into an upright standing position and grinned bashfully at the comment.

“Thank you!”

Joker waved his hand out to her again.

“Keep the contortions comin’, I wanna see what all ‘ee can do.”

Gypsy nodded, though this time a few other troupe members stopped to watch the new comer. She slowly lifted her leg from the side, grabbing it and looking as though she were guiding it to the opposite side of her head and held it there. Her body started to tilt forward so that her hand pressed against the floor, eventually holding her weight as she slowly went into a one-handed handstand while maintaining a split. She held that position for a minute, and as everyone clapped she once again straightened herself out into a standing position.

“This is a bit awkward to do without music or props.”

Joker nodded, going up to her and patting her back.

“No worries, if ‘ee make it into the show we rehearse with music. But what sorts o’ props do 'ee need?”

Gypsy waved her hand at him.

“I have most of the props I use in my caravan; just a mouth piece, cigar, and a hoop. I’m assuming there must be silks and balls here for me to practice with?”

Joker’s eyes lightened up, the props she mentioned sounded like they would make for a bang-up performance.

“That certainly sounds excitin', I’ll 'ave to stick around and watch ‘ee practice then.” He pulled out his pocket watch again and hummed to himself before he stood up on a nearby pedestal and cupped his hands over his mouth. “OI YE LOT!!! WE OUGHTTA START PREPARING FOR THE SHOW NOW, SO LOOK LIVELY!!!”

As everyone slowly ended whatever they were practicing, he hopped off his pedestal towards Gypsy and the small dispersing crowd. As he drew closer to her he began to rub his hands together.

“What I want ‘ee to do now is set up yer caravan near the main performance tent an’ advertise yer fortune readin’ abilities. Ye’ll be doin’ that 'til about five o’clock, then meet Doll towards the back o’ the main tent, she’ll help 'ee with the backstage ‘andlin’. Understand?” Gypsy nodded and Joker grinned and patted her shoulder. “Off with 'ee then. We’re goin’ to need yer help drawing a big crowd for the show, so 'ee best be quick about setting up.”

Her green eyes practically swam with excitement and it made Joker feel giddy.

“You can count on me, Joker!”

Joker grinned at her retreating form, Dagger came up to him and elbowed his side while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Joker rolled his eyes and nudged the younger man away.

“Off with 'ee now, we got a show to concentrate on.”

Dagger laughed obnoxiously.

“Yeah, and maybe you could give Gypsy a ‘private performance’ afterwards!” this time Peter chimed in on the teasing and Joker let out an annoyed groan.

“Go on an’ prepare for the show!!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's performance time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left kudos and comments on this story, it really means a lot to me! So there really isn't a whole lot of changes made to this chapter, just some minor editing.  
> Enjoy! :)

Joker’s favorite part of performing in the circus was setting up and watching as the crowd came onto the fairgrounds; the excited faces of small children as they took in the sounds and sights around them, adults appreciating the wide array of things to do that weren’t just for children, families and groups of friends laughing amongst themselves at the hustle and bustle around them. He loved it all.

“Joker, it’s nearly time,” Beast called.

Joker closed the flap of the curtain he was peeking out of and turned to the beast-tamer, allowing her to fix his bowtie and vest. He laughed a little as she went about fixing him up.

“‘ee’re just like a mother, sprucin’ me up the way 'ee are. I fixed meself up before I came ‘ere 'ee know.”

Beast blushed at the comment and lightly smacked his chest, making him laugh more.

“I’m only makin’ sure that everything’s perfect and that you look your absolute best.”

Joker pretended to be offended and placed his hand over his heart dramatically.

“What’re ‘ee tryna say??” Beast pouted and he chuckled as he patted her shoulder. “I’m only teasin’ ‘ee dear, thank ‘ee for fixin’ me up.”

Beast let out a ‘hmph’ before sharply turning her head away from him to hide her blush.

“I only act like a mother because you ain’t no better at dressin' yourself than a toddler.”

Joker once again laughed at her comment before he peered over her shoulder, noticing Gypsy peeking through a flap to look at the crowd.

“’ow’s she ‘oldin’ up so far?”

Joker could’ve sworn that he saw anger in Beast’s ruby red eyes. She took a glance over her shoulder as well and frowned deeply.

“I dunno, it ain’t my job to keep an eye on her”

Joker slightly frowned at Beast’s comment, but watched as Doll approached Gypsy and began talking, leading her off toward the back to probably show her the ropes of backstage handling. Everyone was talking loudly and some people were shouting over each other, namely the other first-tier folk shouting orders.

“Oi!! Where’s my hat??” Peter shouted. He was always the most boisterous and the biggest pain-in-the-ass to deal with before shows.

“Right here, dummy!” Wendy yelled back as she tossed his hat at him, how she was able to deal with him Joker would never understand.

Joker checked the time once more, he nodded before he cupped his hands over his mouth so that everyone could hear him.

“Five minutes before show time! Hurry up an’ get yer props together!!”

Everyone began to move a little faster and seemed a little more panicked as they searched for any last-minute things they needed.

“Oi, Gypsy. You wanna volunteer to be part o’ me knife-throwin' act?”

Joker made his way over to Gypsy and Dagger as their conversation started, she had just lifted one of the heavier boxes. She looked at the young knife thrower curiously.

“What would I have to do?”

Dagger took out one of his knives, his mischievous grin looked sinister as it gleamed in the lamplight.

“We’ll ‘ave you strapped to a board spread-eagle an’ spin you ‘round while I throw my knives at you.” He then laughed at the young woman’s nervous reaction, “no need to worry. I’ve been doin’ this for years and I ain’t ever hit anybody on accident.” She pressed her lips together thoughtfully before Dagger looked at Joker and winked, “I’m sure Joker would be willing to take you out on a date if you did it.”

Before either one of them could protest Beast stepped in.

“That’s enough, we ain’t got time to dilly-dally right before a performance, ‘specially with a newcomer who still needs to learn 'ow runnin' this show works.” She eyed Gypsy to make sure she understood her point before turning on her heel and walking away.

Doll had hurried up to the three of them and tugged on Gypsy’s arm.

“C’mon, we need you backstage!!!”

As she was dragged away Gypsy looked over her shoulder and called back to Dagger.

“I’ll try to make it as a volunteer for your performance!”

Dagger grinned and waved at the girls’ retreating forms as they hurried off. As he turned to Joker he felt an immediate sense of dread caused by the glare his senior was giving him; if looks could kill, Dagger would be a pile of ribbons from the look in Joker’s eyes. Joker let out a sigh before his signature smile tugged at his lips.

“Do yer best, Dagger. ‘ave a good show.”

As the lights in the auditorium dimmed Joker bent through the flap of the tent and made his way to the center of the stage, careful not to trip over anything in the dark. Once he had made it to his position the lights illuminated his lone figure, his heart racing excitedly and his body bubbling up with energy as it always does whenever he performs. He extended his arms out, his left hand holding out his cane.

“Ladies an' gentlemen, boys an' girls of all ages!” His voice boomed and echoed dramatically throughout the auditorium filled with eager faces. “On this fine summer’s evenin' we welcome ‘ee to the Noah’s Ark Circus!” He then pulled out an array of colorful juggling balls from an inner pocket of his coat and began to juggle for the crowd as he spoke. “Me name is Joker, this evenin’s ringleader. Pleased to meet all of ‘ee!” He then tossed all the balls into the air, spun around, and held his arms to bow as he allowed the small objects to bounce off himself. The audience laughed, causing Joker to grin before he continued to speak. “Tonight ‘ee’re sure to see performances that’ll stun an' amaze 'ee, an' leave ‘ee breathless.” As he spoke he could hear the footsteps of the other first-tier members scurrying up behind him before their silhouettes were illuminated behind him. Joker held his arms out, “an' now, with a fantastic feat from our very own fire-breathin’ Jumbo, the show o’ the century begins!”

He barely had time to glance back at Jumbo before the huge man came up from behind him with a loud yell, which gave Joker and the others enough time to yelp and scamper out of the ring comically. He slipped backstage and watched Jumbo perform his fire-eating tricks while listening to the quiet chaos behind him.

“Go go go!!! Onto the stage with you two!” Beast whisper-shouted to Peter and Wendy, who were performing their trapeze next.

“Gypsy! We need you to help carry these boxes!” Someone shouted.

“Coming! Coming!”

“Gypsy! If you want to make it in time to be a volunteer for me performance, come back over here during Peter and Wendy’s performance!”

She waved back at Dagger as she hurried off to go help. Peter and Wendy’s performance was successfully set up just after Jumbo finished his performance. Joker came back on stage, clapping along with the audience as he walked back to center stage with a light shining down on him, ugh, that light is hot.

“Now to introduce ‘ee to our two talented trapeze artists!”

He held his arm upward, where more lights shown down to illuminate the two as they swung up high above himself. Wendy had released herself from her own trapeze and somersaulted through the air. The audience was silent and held their breath as the small girl flew in the air, but erupted into cheers and applause as Peter caught her easily, making Joker grin.

“Peter an' Wendy!”

Once again Joker made his way backstage, where he would wait about ten minutes as the two performed before introducing Dagger as the next act.

“How’re you holding up?”

Joker looked over his shoulder at Gypsy as she and the other backstage crew members ran around carrying boxes. She looked at him as she waited for his response. He grinned broadly, he always enjoyed performance nights.

“Pretty well I would say. An’ what ‘bout ‘ee? ‘ee ain’t ‘avin’ too hard o’ a time I trust?”

She flicked her hair out of her face as she scooped up a particularly large box which pleased Joker to see that she was working so hard already.

“I’m enjoying all this work. I’ve been living by myself for about five years, so this new environment is refreshing and exciting.”

Joker smiled as she hurried off to carry the box to some other area on the other side of the back stage, but she returned a few moments later though she was out of breath from running back to him.

“Where should I meet Dagger?”

“Over ‘ere!” The bleach-haired young man called to her.

She trotted up to him and bounced on her heels to rid herself of her nervous energy, Joker found it adorable.

“What do you need me to do?”

Dagger laughed at her eagerness and held an arm out to the wheel with straps attached to it.

“Just stand in front o’ that wheel and me assistants will ‘elp you on.”

Gypsy did as she was told; standing in front of the wheel and holding her arms out with her legs in a proper stance as a couple of young ladies strapped her on. Joker stood next to Dagger and watched with an amused grin.

“I’ll ‘ave to make sure ‘ee’re all strapped in proper, so I need to spin the wheel,” Joker had already approached Gypsy and had gripped one of the handles to spin her. He looked at her to make sure she was ready and laughed at the determined expression on her face as she stared forward. “’ee ready?”

She nodded curtly and Joker gave the wheel a hard tug. Gypsy was a giggling mess as she was turned, which made him and Dagger laugh as well.

“Hope you’re having fun, she needs to be on in a minute,” Beast snapped at the laughing lot.

Joker waved Beast off and grabbed the handle to stop Gypsy from spinning. He laughed as she swayed from dizziness in her place and held her face in between his hands to help steady her focus. He waited for her jade eyes to focus into his, then offered a smile.

“Feel good enough to perform?”

Gypsy shook her head to help clear the dizziness away.

“Yes! I want to do it again!”

Joker’s smile only grew, he found it interesting that such a mysterious young woman was also so light-hearted.

“Right, wheel ‘er onto the stage then.” He watched as the two assistants pushed her past the curtains, but curiously looked to Dagger as he threw an arm over his senior’s shoulders. “Any particular reason why ‘ee decided on Gypsy rather than an audience member like ‘ee usually do?”

Dagger grinned and shrugged.

“I thought that we oughtta expose ‘er to performin' for a crowd, you know?”

Joker nodded before walking up to the flap that separated the backstage from the main stage, holding it open for the next performer. He ducked out after Dagger just at the end of Peter and Wendy’s performance, hurrying to his next spot before the light illuminated him.

“Give it up for our trapeze artists ev’ryone!” He applauded along with the audience as the two bowed before the lights shining on them shut off and then shown on Dagger. “Our next performer is a young man with a keen eye an’ never misses his target!”

He stepped back and watched as Gypsy blinked under the harshness of the lights, not even given a moment to readjust to the light before she was spun. Joker was momentarily worried that she would get sick, but she made eye contact with him and held his gaze for a while as she spun. Joker gave her an encouraging smile and a thumbs-up. She seemed more confident and smiled back, focusing her attention instead on Dagger. Dagger pulled out one of his knives, kissing the blade before he set up to throw it- this was a bit of a good-luck charm for him. His eyes narrowed as he carefully aimed at the target with the blade held between his gloved fingers and aiming with the handle. The audience was dead silent and tensed as Dagger drew his arm back, they made a bit of noise as Dagger threw the knife at the wooden board with a quiet grunt, and cheered as it hit the board but missed Gypsy, who was eying the closeness of the blade to her face in shock and awe. Joker waited until Dagger had thrown all of his knives completely around Gypsy before he walked up to the younger man, took his arm in his own hand, and held it up above the two.

“Dagger, ladies an’ gentlemen!”

The bleach-haired young man winked at the crowd and smiled as he waved. Joker put their arms down and looked to Gypsy as she was strapped off, and though she stumbled a bit from the dizziness and even bumped into him, she was looking curiously at how the knives formed an outline of her and she eagerly clapped along with the audience. Joker then walked up to Gypsy and, once again, held her hand in his own and held them above their heads. He justified himself by telling himself that he should hold onto her for a bit so she can regain her balance as well as introduce her to the crowd just as Dagger had suggested.

“Let’s also hear it for our newest troupe member, Gypsy, for bein' such a good sport an’ volunteerin’ for this act on ‘er first night ‘ere!”

Within his peripheral vision he watched as Gypsy waved to the crowd, even bowing a little, with a relieved grin on her face. Before she went off she faced Joker with a smile as bright as the blinding lights on the stage, and he patted her back. He leaned forward so she could hear him over the audience.

“’ee did very well out ‘ere.”

She could only beam up at him before she ran off to help push the wheel off the stage, stumbling a bit and causing the audience to laugh. Joker felt unusually giddy and energetic after the encounter.

“For the next performance, if ‘ee'd would look above ‘ee ladies and gents! ‘ee will see the death-defying walk across the tightrope by our lovely circus princess Doll!”

As the lights dimmed from him he headed towards the backstage once again to watch Doll easily perform her tightrope act. But he slipped behind the curtain to check how Gypsy had been holding up. She was doubled over onto her knees with Dagger and the assistants bending down near her while laughing.

“You did mighty well out there, a real crowd-pleaser you were!” Dagger comforted her while patting her back.

“Aye, I would say that if ‘ee don’t make it as a first-tier member ‘ee could take the permanent position o’ bein’ Dagger’s assistant for shows.”

Gypsy didn’t look at Joker but she still laughed.

“She’s having a harder time adjusting to the stillness than most of us are,” one of the assistants commented as she rubbed at Gypsy’s back.

“You didn’t say anything about being strapped on the wheel for ten minutes,” Gypsy grumbled.

Joker laughed apologetically, kneeling in front of her so she would be able to look at him.

“Sorry about that, probably should’ve mentioned that before 'ee went on. But ‘ee did better than most o’ Dagger’s other first-time spinners, we’ve ‘ad a few of ‘em blow chunks once they made it backstage.”

He and Dagger laughed at the memory, and Gypsy seemed to relax at his reassurance.

“Thanks, I think?”

Joker helped her to stand up and gently pushed her towards the other members of the backstage crew.

“Go on now,” he spoke softly, “’ee can take it easy back ‘ere for the rest o’ the show if need be.”

She nodded her thanks before she went to help. Joker turned to Dagger, who was grinning at him slyly. He let out an annoyed sigh.

“Don’t.”

“I ain’t ever seen you go easy on someone like that before,” Dagger kept grinning, and Joker kept getting annoyed.

“’ow many times do I ‘ave to tell ‘ee? I ain’t got feelings for ‘er, it’s only been a day.”

“So you MIGHT develop feelings for her some day?” Dagger poked at Joker’s cheek playfully, he always did enjoy teasing his elder.

Joker just swatted the hand away before returning onto the main stage just as Doll was starting to finish up, he could see Beast setting up her act in the shadows. He could only pray that everything would go well during this performance since it WAS the most dangerous. He didn’t doubt Beast’s skills, she was the best of the best after all, he just didn’t want her to get hurt. He cared for all his circus members and wished for all their performances to go well, but animals could be unpredictable. The audience clapped as Doll finished her acrobatic feat and made it to the other end of the platform.

“Please give a big hand for Doll, let ‘er know ‘ow entertained 'ee were!”

The audience typically went crazy for Beast and Doll’s acts since they were the most dangerous. He momentarily wondered how the audience would react to Gypsy’s contortions, would they have enough time to squeeze in another act?

“Last but certainly not least I introduce 'ee to the brightest star o’ our troupe. I bring 'ee the famous tamer o’ wild cats…”

He watched as Beast instructed Betty to leap through hoops that were set on fire and various other tricks. Beast never used her whip on Betty unless she was causing harm, it was all mostly for show. After performing her tricks Betty finally rested at Beast’s feet so that she would be able to put her foot up on the tiger’s back and pose.

“Beast!” Joker’s voice boomed excitedly throughout the ring and everyone erupted into massive applause

Joker glanced over his shoulder to see Dagger, Doll, and Gypsy peeking out to watch for their cue to come out for the encore. Jumbo, Peter, and Wendy all pushed out the other two first-tier members and they began to make their way out. Once they were all positioned into a line behind him, Joker held his arms out as the lights illuminated all of them.

“Ladies an’ gentlemen! The Noah’s Arc Circus thanks ‘ee for takin’ the time outta yer busy schedules to come watch us perform. Please let us know ‘ow entertained 'ee were by applaudin’! Put yer ‘ands together for Jumbo!” He paused after saying each member’s name to allow the audience some time to clap and cheer and for the member to bow before the crowd. “Peter n’ Wendy! Dagger! Doll! An’ Beast!”

The thunderous applause was almost deafening upon his ears, and he loved the rush he got from performing in front of crowds like this; the tent was especially packed during the warmer seasons. He could never get tired of performing, it was especially lax after Father had stopped coming to the performances. The circus and the crowd seemed to be Joker’s only escape and distraction from the real world he lived in, from all the horrible acts he’s committed. He continued to smile brightly for the crowd, willing to put on a facade for as long as he needed to.

“Thank 'ee for comin’ everyone, ‘ope 'ee enjoyed the show. Safe travels to 'ee all, an’ good night!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joker receives a letter from Father, and Doll finds herself in trouble again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi!  
> Sorry guys, I suck and didn't update as quickly as I wanted to. It's been a hell of a week! Anyways, the only warnings for this chapter is that there are hints to child abduction, physical abuse, child homelessness, and depression. My poor baby, he doesn't deserve to suffer!

“Good show ev’ryone! Very well done!”

Joker grinned broadly as everyone started to put away everything after their previous performance, taking a deep breath through his nose and exhaling through his mouth as he placed his hands on his hips. He stretched his arms over his head, letting out a satisfied sigh as his bones and joints popped and cracked. He turned and noticed Gypsy hurrying up to him, he then remembered telling her he would be assigning tent partners for her.

“Oi, Doll!” The girl turned her head as she was called, “go an’ grab yer tent mate, he needs to be introduced to Gypsy.”

Doll practically beamed and bounced off to her shared tent to grab the young man she bunked with, a snake-man he creatively nicknamed Snake. The troupe had found Snake a few months back while they were on their way to find a new revenue for their circus. Somehow Doll had managed to stumble upon the poor young man, trapped in a cage and treated like an animal. They couldn’t just leave him there, so Joker offered him a position as a circus member and did their best to treat him like family. Snake was generally very shy and only seemed to talk to his pet snakes, which was immensely frustrating for Joker since he was so extroverted. Snake wasn’t allowed to let his snakes loose if he wasn’t around them as a safety precaution. Joker was glad that the troupe was able to finally free someone from a cage rather than put someone in.

“Did you still want to talk to me about tent assignments?”

Joker blinked himself out of his thoughts and saw Gypsy standing in front of him. Looking just past her he saw that Doll, who had changed from her performance attire to her casual clothes, was dragging Snake along and smiled.

“Aye, an’ ‘ere come yer tent mates. ‘ee already know Doll an’ the other one’s Snake, he’s been ‘ere a few months longer than yerself.”

Gypsy turned to look at Doll and gave her a puzzled look.

“But I thought first-tier members have their own tents, why would you want to share one?”

Doll laughed and scratched her cheek.

“I ain’t too fond o’ sleepin’ by meself. I always sleep better with someone in the room, you know?”

Joker stood next to Doll while a fond memory suddenly came to mind.

“Aye. I remember back when we were first taken in ‘ee always wanted to sleep in the same bed as me since no one else could put up with ‘ee.” Joker stuck his thumb out at her as he spoke to Gypsy, “none o’ the other troupe embers could stand sleepin’ with her, kicks like a mule this one does.”

Gypsy laughed as Doll pouted, and Joker noticed Snake smiling at the story but was shifting his weight between his feet as he stood there nervously. Joker gestured to the snake-man.

“An’ this fine young man is Snake, he’s our snake-charmer. He will be yer second tent mate since we ain’t got no co-ed rules ‘ere.”

Gypsy smiled pleasantly at the pale young man and held her hand out as a greeting.

“Pleased to meet you Snake, my name’s Gypsy.”

Snake looked at Joker nervously, he responded with an encouraging smile and a nod. Snake shook her hand. The two snakes that rested upon his shoulders slithered along his arms and made their usual hissing noises at her, coiling in front of her and examining her curiously.

“...“The pleasure is all mine.” ...that’s what Emily says anyway.” Snake quietly responded.

Gypsy seemed unfazed by the snakes, in fact she looked at them without getting too close. Snake quickly pulled his hand back with the same quickness as accidentally touching a hot stove. Joker and Doll carefully watched the encounter.

“You’re a snake-charmer? Do you ever get worried about them biting you.”

Snake’s snakes hissed again.

“...“What do you take him for, some kind of knave? He has been handling us snakes his whole life!”...says Wadsworth.”

Joker had to admit that it was entertaining to listen to Snake interpret what his snakes said, using different voices for the different snakes. Gypsy’s eyes seemed to be completely awestruck and Snake looked a little uncomfortable.

“Your whole life? Really?? That’s incredible! And you understand what they’re saying?”

More hissing.

“...“Oh yes, he’s had a knack for it ever since he was little. He’s one of us, you know.”...says Emily.”

Joker hoped that Gypsy wouldn’t find Snake odd and ask for a new tent to be assigned to, but was relieved when he saw how calmly she smiled as she observed Snake’s features.

“...“Don’t you know that it’s rude to stare like that?”...says Wadsworth.”

Gypsy only laughed apologetically and held her hands up.

“My apologies, Mr. Wadsworth. Tell me Snake, do you have any place to keep your snakes? I’ve got my caravan that you can use when I don’t need it.”

Snake seemed to perk up at her suggestion, making Joker smile.

“...“You would really do that? That’s incredibly kind of you.”...yes, I suppose it is nice of her, Emily.”

Doll giggled at their interaction and Joker clapped his hands to get their attention.

“Alright, enough squawking, ‘ee birds. Off to bed with ‘ee lot. Doll, be sure to show Gypsy the ropes o’ the morning routine tomorrow.”

Doll nodded eagerly before grabbing Gypsy’s and Snake’s arms and dragging them to their shared tent.

“Right boss! C’mon you two, you ‘eard ‘im! Gotta get some shut eye if we wanna ‘ave the energy to wake up bright ‘n early!”

Joker chuckled and shook his head at the girl, always so energetic she is. Figuring that he should go to bed as well he made his way to his own tent to find Beast waiting for him- with a dreaded piece of parchment held between her fingers. The two were silent, not even bothering to make eye contact as she passed him the letter and walked off. He slipped into his tent, letting out a worn-out sigh as he lit one of his lamps. Picking up his letter opener that sat on his desk he carefully broke the wax seal that was marked with the Coat of Arms of his Father. A sickening feeling washed over him as he set the letter-opener down and pulled out the letter, the feeling only growing more intense as he read the contents. Letting out another sigh, he figured that he would tell the others of this letter tomorrow in the morning at breakfast and discuss what to do. He tugged his clothes off and tossed them into a corner of the tent in a pile of other dirty shirts, he should probably do some laundry tomorrow as well. As he changed into his bed clothes he removed his prosthetic arm, which was his least favorite part of his morning and nightly routines since it hurt so much to attach and detach it. He slipped himself under the covers, leaning over to make sure the lamp was out before he could get some shut eye.

Though he smiled to himself as he thought of the newest member of the troupe, Joker found himself having yet another dreamless night.

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The next morning Joker awoke without feeling refreshed, in fact he felt more exhausted when he woke up than he did when he fell asleep. He forced himself to get out of bed regardless so he could meet with the other first-tier members and discuss Father’s letter. He felt empty as he simply went through the motions of his morning routine: re-attaching his prosthesis, fixing his hair, changing out of his bedclothes and into his typical performance outfit, putting on his makeup, all the while humming “Tom the Piper’s Son” to help himself wake up.

As he applied his makeup he stared into the mirror and made the mistake of looking at his own reflection. He remembered when he saw his reflection for the first time when he was younger, how thin himself and the other troupe members used to be. He never really had the chance to completely look at himself until he and the rest of the troupe were taken in by Father- seeing himself so incredibly thin and almost skeleton-like still haunts him today, and he vowed to himself that he would never let himself or the others live like that again. Now he had gained a healthy amount of weight, he grew a bit taller, and he was still protecting his family; he just wished that he didn’t have to do such awful things for Father in order to survive. That man... Joker shook his head; he didn’t have the time to dawdle when the others were waiting for him. He finished getting dressed by tying his bow tie on before stepping out of his tent and making his way to the mess hall.

Once he opened the tent to the hall he saw the rest of the first-tier members sitting around one of the tables. Peter had his head resting against the table as he lightly snoozed, Wendy sat next to him with her chin resting in her hand and nodding off, Dagger sat across from them and ate his breakfast groggily, Beast was glaring into her mug of coffee, and Jumbo was alert as ever. Joker decided to be mean to them since they all seemed so tired still.

“Good~ mornin’ ev’ryone! Nice to see all o’ 'ee so bright eyed and bushy tailed this early!”

He held back a snicker as everyone but Jumbo shot him an annoyed glare as he took his seat on the end next to Dagger.

“Fuck off, ‘m too damn tired for your shit,” Peter grumbled as he sat up and rested his face in his palms.

Dagger glared at Peter and threw a spoonful of oatmeal at him, Peter was about to get up before he was stopped by Jumbo.

“Now, now. No need to start a fight so early.”

Joker was a bit startled when someone dropped off a plate of toast as well as a mug of coffee in front of him, but he recognized the dark hand and turned back to smile appreciatively at Gypsy- she must’ve been told that he doesn’t eat that much in the mornings.

“Thank ‘ee love,” Joker said absentmindedly, he was used to having Doll bring him his food before they started their usual meetings. Upon realizing who he was talking to he laughed a little when he saw a light blush on Gypsy and Beast’s faces. “Sorry, it’s still a bit early,” he took a sip of his coffee to wake himself up a bit more. Gypsy began to walk away before Joker gently touched her arm. “Would ‘ee mind tellin’ Doll to come out ‘ere please? We need to discuss somethin’ ‘bout the show.”

Gypsy nodded, giving him a sleepy smile before she disappeared behind the flap that lead into the kitchen where Doll came from a few minutes later. She practically skipped up to the table and plopped herself down next to Jumbo.

“Mornin’ all!” she said cheerily and was met with mumbled replies.

Joker took another swig of his coffee before he began speaking in his normal accent, different from his ‘performer’ voice.

“Now that ev’ryone’s ‘ere, I got some unfortunate news.” Everyone frowned and looked down at their food as Joker pulled out the letter he had received from Father the previous night.

“Again?” Doll was the most distraught, being a child herself she hated having to kidnap stranger’s children.

Joker nodded solemnly.

“’fraid so. He’s been getting’ worse ‘n worse with that little obsession of ‘is, I think. These letters ‘ave gotten more frequent as well.” He looked at the other members, waiting until he made eye contact with all of them before he continued. “Do we ‘ave any new information ‘bout that Phantomhive boy?”

Everyone shook their heads causing Joker to frown and run a hand through his hair. Father had been wanting to see Joker less and less now and wanting more and more children to...‘entertain him’. It sickened Joker to drag all these innocent kids to a hell far worse than the one he lived, but he and the troupe were in far too deep to turn back now; if only Beast could understand that. If they left Father now he could rat them out to the police, or worse- he would throw out all those little ones he had promised to look after should Joker ever disobey him. ‘An eye-for-an-eye’, Father called this policy: they would kidnap the children of nobles and in exchange Father would keep supporting the circus and would keep the children he found on the streets safe at the Renbourn Workhouse. Joker couldn’t risk disobeying Father; it wouldn’t be fair to the children. Coming back to the present situation he sharply inhaled through his nose and closed his eyes as he thought.

“Who does he want this time?” Peter asked gruffly as he shoved a spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth.

Joker looked at the photo that came with the letter as he bit into his piece of toast.

“Some nobleman’s daughter, ‘er name is Dianna Berry an’ it looks like she’s ‘bout eleven years old...”

Everyone cringed and shuddered as Joker read the young girl’s age aloud. Doll looked as though she would burst into tears at any moment; there was no way any one of them would be able to comfort her when they were all feeling the exact same way. It was heart breaking and exhausting, like a burden that weighed too heavily on their shoulders. Joker had put it all on himself to take the brunt of it all. He was the one who would deliver messages to Father, who would take the verbal and even physical abuse, who was too broken of a man to care about what happened to himself as long as others were safe. Even before Father took the lot in, he had been the protector of the group: taking the beatings if they got caught stealing bread, sucking up his pride to beg for money, food, or medicine, making sure that everyone had food even if that meant he would have none for himself. Joker couldn’t let others suffer if he could prevent it- and that sort of living is what got him into this mess in the first place, and the first-tier members were more grateful to Joker than they ever could be to Father for that.

“When do you want us to do it?” Jumbo asked calmly as he rubbed circles into Doll’s back to calm her down.

Everyone’s eyes rested on their leader as they waited for his response. Joker had to consider what time they would all be able to spare, where exactly this young girl lived, how many witnesses there could be, and how long the whole ordeal would take without being caught. These missions were especially difficult during the summer since they would stay in town for a whole week rather than three days like they would during the other seasons, when it would be easier to get away with the abductions.

“We’ll do it in two nights,” he decided. “That’s the only time I can think o’ sparin’ to pull this off.”

Joker frowned as the members all stared down into either their drinks or at their hands. Doll sniffled pathetically. Joker finally gave them all a small smile.

“Let’s not think ‘bout that too much, aye?” He spoke softly and comfortingly. “Remember we’ve got a show tonight, so try to distract yerselves best ‘ee can.” The group all voiced their agreement as he hurried to finish his breakfast. “Right then!” He now spoke with his usual cheery ‘performer’ voice as he stood up and collected his now empty plate and mug. “Come on slow pokes, the other folks need to eat too so we’ve got a short window if we want to practice by ourselves.”

More grumbling erupted from the first-tier members as Joker walked to the kitchen to put his dishes away, though he nearly bumped into Gypsy as she carried a huge tray of bacon on a cloth to serve to the other troupe members.

“Oh, my apologies Gypsy I ain’t seen 'ee there!” He held the opening of the tent for her to get through, and she smiled at him appreciatively as she hurried past him. “Nice to see that ‘ee’re wide awake an’ workin’ ‘ard, 'ee sleep well?”

Gypsy set the heavy tray on one of the tables meant to be the serving area and wiped her hands on the cloth she was using to carry the hot tray with. She wasn’t wearing her usual performance attire and was instead wearing a ruffled white blouse, a green vest, a red and black vertically stripped skirt, her boots, and a black bandana holding her hair back.

“I’m used to waking up this early no matter the amount of sleep I get,” she peered over Joker’s shoulder and gave a teasing smile to whoever she was directing her attention to. “Snake says that he gets cold at night, so Doll and I debunked our beds, rearranged the room, and now we all sleep together with Snake snug between myself and Doll with all our beds in a row.”

Joker turned to see a blushing Snake carrying a pot of oatmeal while his snakes coiled around his arms and shoulders, and Joker whistled in response to Gypsy.

“Sleepin’ between two pretty gals, are ‘ee Snake? Careful, I wouldn’t want to find out about any funny business goin’ on between ‘ee three.”

Snake’s face turned bright red at Joker’s teasing and he scrambled back into the kitchen in a flustered mess. Gypsy rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“If there’s anyone out of the three of us doing funny business it’s that one,” she jerked her thumb at Doll, who straightened at Gypsy’s accusation, from over her shoulder. “Little Miss Doll here had a bit of trouble keeping her hands to herself and is the reason why there has to be a pillow between herself and poor Snake.”

Gypsy and Joker both looked over at Doll, who had been stuffing her face before she was called out and nearly choked at what Gypsy had told Joker, who gave Doll a ‘look’ that made her fidget. He raised a brow.

“Oh really?” Joker drawled out as he and Gypsy made their way to Doll. “What’s this problem I ‘ear that ‘ee’ve been ‘avin’ with that Snake fellow?”

Doll shot a glare to Gypsy before swallowing her food so she could talk.

“I was just askin’ what it’s like for ‘im to be part snake an’ if he did all the stuff snakes could.”

“And then what did you do?” Gypsy asked, almost as if she were forcing a child to confess to being naughty.

Doll stared into her lap guiltily and twiddled her thumbs like she usually did when she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to.

“I asked ‘im if I could feel ‘is scales.”

“And then what?”

Doll whined before continuing, she was just like a toddler.

“He said ‘no’, but I did it anyways.”

Joker pressed his lips together in a harsh line as he glowered down at the younger girl whose head seemed to bow under the intensity of his gaze.

“So now what do you have to do?”

Doll seemed to shrink.

“I ‘ave to do all o’ ‘is chores an’ mine for two weeks.”

Gypsy folded her arms over her chest and raised a brow at the younger girl.

“Annddd?”

“I can’t sleep next to ‘im no more.”

In all honesty Joker wanted to laugh at how good Gypsy could discipline Doll, but he needed to be firm as well. He leaned forward and grasped her nose between the forefinger and middle finger of his gloved left hand while giving her an unamused ‘no nonsense’ look.

“’ow many times ‘ave I told ‘ee to keep yer nose outta people’s personal lives? I only ‘ope ‘ee’ve apologized to Snake for ‘ow uncomfortable ‘ee probably made ‘im feel.”

Doll whined, which sounded nasally from being held between Joker's fingers, and flailed her arms. Joker heard Gypsy let out an amused chuckle from behind him and he had to bite back a laugh at the noise Doll made.

“I already apologized for it!! Snake accepted my apology an’ we went to bed after!!”

Joker nodded and released her nose.

“Good, now go ‘elp ‘im with the dishes an’ apologize again,” he said sternly.

Doll pouted before standing up and grumbling to herself, but before she went back into the tent she looked over her shoulder.

“Joker?”

“Yeah?"

“I love you.”

Joker’s heart practically melted. Sure, Doll was certainly a pain-in-the-ass at times, especially for a thirteen-year-old, but she was sweet most of the time and truly meant well. He smiled back at her.

“I love ‘ee too, silly goose.”

Doll smiled at her nickname before disappearing into the tent. Joker turned back to Gypsy, who was also smiling up at him. Joker then pulled out his pocket watch to check the time, it was almost seven o’clock.

“Suppose I’d better take off to go practice while the tent’s empty, so I’ll see ‘ee around!”

Gypsy nodded with a grin before turning her attention to serving the second-tier folks their breakfast. Joker strode down to the practice tent eagerly, glad that Gypsy had been there to distract his thoughts from Father and their mission. Once inside the huge tent, Joker set about removing his jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows before going to the storage area and pulling out some juggling balls, determined to beat his record of juggling eight balls. Once he began to toss the colorful orbs around, there was nothing else he concentrated on. Practicing was a sort of stress reliever for him. He could take the time he barely had in the day to not really think of anything: not Father, not the performances, nothing really mattered in this moment besides making sure that he caught each ball and tossed it into the air accordingly before he could catch the next one and repeat the process over and over again.

“Oi, Joker.”

The ringleader was startled out of his concentration, jumping a bit before he allowed all the balls to drop. He gave Beast a sour look before he began to pick the objects up.

“Blimey Beast, I nearly perfected bein’ able to juggle nine o’ these things.”

The dark-haired woman only rolled her eyes.

“I was just sayin’ that the other members need to practice as well an’ it’s our turn to watch ‘em.”

Joker looked puzzled for a moment, once again pulling out his pocket watch before realizing that he had been juggling for a good hour. No wonder his arms felt so sore...

“Oh, right. Sorry for tellin’ ‘ee off like that Beast, I didn’t realize the time.” Beast only huffed, so Joker pulled out his cane and pressed his thumb over the tip so that a bouquet of flowers appeared out of it, something he always did whenever she needed cheering up. He rested his chin on her shoulder and held the flowers out for her. “Come now, let’s ‘ave a smile, eh?”

Beast blushed madly but took the flowers and marched off to open the tent. Joker moved to stand near one of the pillars so he could chaperone the trainees- he was honestly surprised at how often fights would occur, Jumbo had to always be watching carefully and remove anyone who started fighting. He grinned as he heard the trainees chatter amongst themselves when they flooded into the tent and began to set up for practice. He scanned the crowd and eventually found Gypsy stretching with Doll, noticing that she changed back into her performance attire. He couldn’t help but feel a little insecure about his own inflexibility as he watched the two stretch their limber limbs, but he continued to curiously watch her as she began to practice. It was quite remarkable to watch how she bent herself into all sorts of odd positions and easily fixed herself upright without breaking a sweat. After holding several poses that Joker and other onlookers tilted their head at, she stood straight up and pressed a finger to her lip in thought.

“Joker, would you mind helping me find some props please?”

The young man pushed himself off the pillar he had been leaning on and walked alongside Gypsy as they headed to the storage area.

“Sure! Watcha need?”

“A bow and arrow and a target,” she said easily as she began to search through some of the boxes.

Joker let out a curious hum as he wandered to a pile of boxes, thankful that Beast and Wendy were so organized.

“Those would be in the ‘weapons’ boxes,” he began to search through the boxes as well, but didn’t have to search for very long when he found a bow with a sling full of a couple of arrows. “’ere we go, but what do ‘ee need these for? Performin’ a new trick, are ‘ee?”

Gypsy gathered up the weapons as Joker grabbed on of Dagger’s targets and they made their way back to her practice area. She gave him a knowing smirk from over her shoulder.

“You’ll see.”

Joker grew excited at the prospect and was curious to see what sort of trick she would perform. She dragged a platform to her area and quickly set up the target to stand a few meters from her. Joker rose a curious brow.

“Mind if I watch this new trick then?”

“I certainly don’t mind.” She turned to the orchestra who had been practicing nearby, “drumroll please.”

As the drummer rolled his sticks Joker watched as Gypsy bent backwards and held herself on top of the podium, grasped the bow between the toes of one foot and an arrow between the toes of the other, and carefully aimed like an archer would with her feet. Joker and some others watched intensely. He trusted that Gypsy wouldn’t miss the target, but the target was so far from her and anything could happen within the distance between herself and the target. He held his breath as she drew back the arrow and felt his heart leap into his throat the moment she released the arrow. He and others cheered once they saw the arrow not only hit the target, but hit a bull’s eye no less! A relieved smile spread across Gypsy’s face and she straightened herself upright after setting down the bow and arrows. Soon she was surrounded by other circus members who were telling her how they’ve never seen a trick like that before, she laughed the comments off and thanked everyone for their kind words.

“That was mighty impressive of ‘ee, Gypsy,” Joker’s voice broke through the crowd as he observed the arrow. He turned to look at her and smiled, “this trick ‘ere may as well make ‘ee a first-tier member.” He walked up to her and patted her shoulder, “‘ee’ve still got a long way to go, but it shouldn’t be too far for ‘ee. Keep up the good work., understand?”

A dazzling smile broke over her face at his words and Doll had appeared next to her, grasping her shoulders and shaking the poor woman in her excitement. 

“GYPSY THAT WAS AMAZIN’!!! Are you sure you’ve never been in a circus before??”

Gypsy nodded.

“I am very sure.”

Joker smiled at the two before he made his way back to his previous designation at the post, folding his arms over his chest and leaning his back against it as he watched the talented folks practicing in front of him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After moving the circus's camp site, Gypsy eventually gets drunk and things become a little...intimate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **There are trigger warnings for this particular chapter: mentions of past rape, mentions of past physical and emotional abuse, implications of ongoing abuse.**
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> I am a little hesitant to post this chapter just because it dwells in a lot of very emotional subjects. A L O T of stuff happens in this story guys, but you can pretty much read the first half of this chapter if you're uncomfortable with the situations listed in the warning. I hate making my baby boy suffer, but I have to because I'm pretty much matching the angst that was in the circus arch. :')
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> Edit as of 13/4/2018: I have no idea why a bunch of the words become italicized when I made sure they weren’t while posting this chapter. Well anyway, I fixed all of that and made some minor fixes here and there.

It had been a week since Gypsy had joined the circus, and so far only good things have happened. Gypsy was certainly a hard worker; making sure that everyone was fed whenever she cooked meals, practicing her contortions whenever she had the time to spare, and running around to help backstage during performances. Today was moving day, and the morning was hectic with people running about packing all the tents and their belongings.

“I need some ‘elp packin’ the practice tent!” Joker called out.

Gypsy, Doll, Dagger, Jumbo, and a group of other circus folks came to help. 

“Right then, let’s work our way from the inside out. The tent’s already empty o’ ev’rythin’, so alls we gotta do is take it down.”

“Right!” His group of workers responded enthusiastically.

They all then set about running around and untying the flaps of the tent. As the fabric fell, it ended up landing on Gypsy and Doll and knocked the two over. 

“Are you ladies alright?” Jumbo called, unable to check on them since he was carrying some heavy poles that held the tent up.

Muffled laughter was all the response the two gave him, Joker found it oddly entertaining to watch the two lumps move around underneath the large piece of fabric. Gypsy finally emerged from the side of the tent’s fabric, laughing uncontrollably as she crawled out. Joker approached her as she held the edge open and peeked in at Doll.

“I thought you were coming out?” She called.

“D’you think if I stay under ‘ere, I could get out of working?”

“Not a chance.”

Doll jolted at Joker’s voice and quickly scrambled out of the opening Gypsy held up, standing and laughing a bit nervously at Joker’s expression. He only rolled his eyes.

“Let’s ‘urry an’ finish packin’ up, I wanna be on the road before it gets too ‘ot.”

Doll and Gypsy nodded at him and immediately went back to taking apart the tent. Joker only sighed at their retreating forms and went back to helping Dagger and Jumbo take down the poles of the tent. Joker had to climb all the way on top of the tent to take apart the poles, and after years of doing this he knew all sorts of tricks to get the huge tent packed away efficiently, quickly, and safely.

Most of the camp was packed up around midday, Joker had been running around making sure everyone was doing their jobs and everything was getting packed properly. He was glad that his circus troupe was efficient enough to run successfully without him micromanaging everyone. Once everyone was packed up in their wagons, Joker stood in front of everyone on the very top of his and called out to everyone.

“Alright all! It’ll be ‘bout a three-hour ride to the next city over, so ‘ee better ‘ave ‘ad bathroom breaks ‘cause we ain’t stoppin’! Now, let’s get goin’!”

Everyone cheered and Joker plopped down into his seat next to Dagger up at the front, who held the reins to the horse to drive the wagon. All the other first-string members were riding with him, aside from Doll. Before he could even ask about the young girl’s whereabouts, he heard Wendy speak up from behind him.

“Doll’s ridin’ in Gypsy’s caravan with Snake.”

It only took Joker a moment before he was able to find the turquoise wagon, seeing Doll and Snake squished on either side of Gypsy. He watched with amusement as Gypsy handed Doll Bo’s reigns and pat Snake’s knee reassuringly. Doll eagerly whipped at the reins, though this startled Bo and caused him to rear; in turn causing the caravan to tilt backwards.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Gypsy called out to the mule, quickly taking the reins from Doll. 

The trio let out an ‘oof’ once Bo stood on all four of his legs and bumped into the fence of the caravan with his behind. Gypsy glanced behind her to check the inside her home and laughed a little as she pat Doll’s shoulder. The whole scenario caused the Joker and the other first-stringers to laugh, although Doll hid away in embarrassment. As they began to move, their carriages moved alongside each other, making it easy for them to talk to each other.

“You alright Doll?” Beast called to the younger girl.

Gypsy and Snake looked Doll and leaned back a bit so that Doll could talk with Beast properly. Doll’s cheeks were still flushed a bright pink.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she grumbled.

The first-string members laughed, Doll pursed her lips out and slumped over some more. Gypsy lightly elbowed her.

“Say, why don’t you fetch some carrots for Bo to snack on. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind an apology,” she said teasingly.

Doll took the words to heart and eagerly climbed into the caravan to recover the vegetables. Joker smiled, clearly amused by his little sister.

“Oi, Snake. ‘ow’ve ‘ee been doin’?”

The pale young man looked at Joker, he almost looked surprised that Joker spoke to him. Two of his snakes coiled around his neck like they usually did, and he looked at one of them.

“...“Oh, I’m alright. A little hot though, but I’ll be fine!”...says Emily.”

Joker nodded.

“An’ what ‘bout yer other snakes? Are they locked away all nice an’ proper?”

Snake looked at the other serpent that was draped around his shoulders.

“...“As much as we hate being locked up, yes. The others are safe and in here, ”...says Bronte.”

Joker smiled this time.

“Good, good!”

Silence fell over them, everyone was exhausted from both the heat and the labor of packing up the camp- though most of them were dreading the thought of having to set everything back up once they make it to their new destination. Joker generally preferred to stay within England since he could easily go visit Father and send and receive letters quicker, but he was willing to travel outside of England whenever Father permitted him to; which was very rare. 

He suddenly perked up when he heard the French language being spoken. Looking over at Gypsy’s caravan he saw that she and Snake, surprisingly, were speaking to each other in the foreign language.

“Oi, Snake!” The pale man jolted slightly, but turned his attention over to Joker. _“I couldn’t help but notice you two speaking French!”_

Gypsy and Snake looked surprised.

 _“Yes, I can speak French...”_ Snake responded quietly, without mentioning any of his snakes afterward. Interesting.

 _“We both grew up in France, as it turns out,”_ Gypsy explained. _“How is it that you’ve come to know the language, Joker?”_

Joker waved his hand.

_”With all of the travelling the circus does, we run into lots of different people. I can pick up a few phrases in other languages here and there, and so I learned French!”_

Gypsy gazed at him curiously. 

“Oi!” Doll yelled, finally coming back onto the porch with an armful of carrots, “it ain’t polite to be speakin’ diff’rently in front o’ others, ya know!”

Joker and Gypsy laughed at the disgruntled Doll. The other members were far too tired to join in on the conversation and they all napped in the back of the cart, Joker took the reins from Dagger so the younger could lay in the heap of bodies behind them and sleep. Joker let out an amused chuckle at his sleepy oddball family. 

“I’m going to catch some sleep b’fore we start unpackin’,” Doll said as she stretched her arms over her head. 

Gypsy nodded. 

“Feel free to use my bed or couch to make yourself comfortable.” 

Doll nodded at her appreciatively, waved to Joker, and slunk inside of the caravan. 

“’ave ‘ee ‘eard ‘er snore yet?” Joker asked teasingly. 

“I don’t snore!!!” Doll shouted from inside, causing a very sleepy Snake, who had begun to drift off and lean on Gypsy’s shoulder, to jump and startle awake. 

Gypsy and Joker laughed. 

“Aye, ‘ee snore loud enough to wake the dead!” Joker called, amusement in his voice. 

“Shut yer trap!” Peter yelled, obviously annoyed that he had been woken up. 

Joker only snickered to himself as he focused back on the road. 

“As much as I enjoy chattin’ with ‘ee lassie, it seems we should be quiet so this lot can get some shut eye.” 

Gypsy nodded in agreement, turning to Snake and nudging him awake with her shoulder. 

“Hey, why don’t you go into the caravan and get some sleep?” 

Snake only nodded sleepily and crawled into the caravan. Gypsy watched as he flopped onto the couch and immediately fell asleep on his stomach with his snakes curling themselves in a pile in top of his back. She looked back at Joker and gave him a smile, sharing with him an understanding that this was going to be a _very_ long ride for them. Joker merely shrugged and smiled in return before turning back and watching the road, a comfortable silence falling over the two for the next two-and-a-half hours. 

************************************************************************************************************************************************** 

The ride had been incredibly boring for Joker, he was eager to get to work when they finally arrived at the campsite. He leaped out of the cart he had been sitting on, his sore legs and knees were thankful to be able to stretch out. Joker’s sudden movement stirred the first-string members awake, all of them groggy and annoyed at being awake. 

“Let’s start markin’ ev’rythin’,” Joker said as he pulled out the bag from their cart that contained small poles and different colored ropes, which coordinated with the tents that would be set up there. 

Peter grumbled to himself as he slid off the cart and the others were quick to follow, each grabbing a set of poles and colored rope before heading off. Joker and Dagger quickly set up where Joker was planning on setting up the main tent, he and the others had worked on a map of the campsite beforehand and knew where everything was going to be. As they stuck the poles into the ground Joker whistled a little tune. 

“You seem real chipper today,” Dagger commented. 

Joker grinned back at his younger brother. 

“I’m always in a chipper mood when we’re settin’ up camp!” 

Dagger rolled his eyes and scoffed. 

“Yeah, but you don’t always ‘ave a skip in your step like you do today.” 

Joker paused, the light-blue rope that was in his hands held in mid-air before he shook his head quickly and continued to tie it around the poles. 

“Just in a good mood I s’pose.” 

“Hmmmm,” Dagger sounded suspicious. “You seem to be a lot ‘appier since Gypsy came ‘round an’ joined us.” 

Joker had to admit that he felt his face start to heat up. He just hoped Dagger wouldn’t notice him blushing; unfortunately, he did. The boy grinned coyly, walking up to his elder and playfully nudging his side. 

“I ‘eard you an’ Gypsy talkin’ to each other in that fancy language. What were you sayin’?” 

Joker shrugged, pretending to be focusing on his task and not at the butterflies that stirred in his lower belly when Dagger mentioned the newcomer. 

“Nothin’ real important, we were just talkin’ ‘bout ‘ow we both came to knowin’ French.” Before Dagger could say anything more, Joker abruptly changed the topic, “did ‘ee know that Snake is French? An’ when he speaks it, he don’t say anythin’ for ‘is snakes.” 

Dagger hummed, still suspicious about Joker’s change of topic. 

“That’s real interestin’.” 

The two young men finished their work in silence after that, though Joker continued his whistling and humming. Joker practically bounced around as he eagerly waited for the rest of the camp to join them, running around as the last of the carts pulled up just to make sure that everyone and everything had made it to the campsite. 

“Alright, everyone’s here!” Joker called out. He climbed on top of a tall cart and loudly whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Listen up ev’rybody!” He waited for everyone to quiet down before he began speaking, his voice was certainly loud enough to be heard from several kilometers away. “Alright. Let’s make settin’ up ev’rythin’ real easy: ev’rythin’ ‘ee ‘elped to put away an’ pack up is what ‘ee’ll be settin’ up, meanin’ if ‘ee ‘elped take down the main tent, ‘ee’ll be expected to put up the main tent. If ‘ee ‘elped take down the dinin’ tent, ‘ee’ll be puttin’ up the dinin’ tent, an’ so on an’ so forth. Got it?” Everyone nodded and voiced their agreement. “Simple enough?” He received the same response. “Right, then let’s get the camp set up as quickly an’ efficiently as possible yeah?” 

This time everyone responded with eager cheers and quickly went about setting up the camp. Joker, Jumbo, Dagger, Doll, Gypsy, and the same group of other second-tier folks quickly pulled out the fabric of the Main Tent while Jumbo, being the bid and strong bloke that he is, carried the large poles they needed. The bundled up fabric was large and rather heavy, but Joker certainly didn’t mind carrying it. 

“Alright, all together lads ‘n ladies!” he called out as the rest of his helpers quickly braced themselves to lift the heavy tent. “One, two, three, lift!” 

He heard a few grunts behind him and he let out a pained huff when he felt his prosthetic fidget under the weight, causing the nerves in the arm where the connection was to sting painfully. 

“You alright boss?” Dagger asked from behind him, though his voice was strained from the effort of carrying the tent. 

“Aye, I’ll be fine,” Joker replied. “Let’s get a move on!” 

Joker and the others quickly marched to where the blue rope was set up and they all set the tent down perpendicular with the rope. 

“Okay, let’s unroll this thing!” 

They each lined up in front of the fabric and held on to the edge before they quickly unfurled the large tent. It didn’t take very long for them to completely unfold the fabric. 

“Alright, let’s divide puttin’ this up into sections. Ev’rybody gets a section of the tent, the poles for the tent are over by the carts.” He clapped loudly, “let’s ‘op to it!” 

It took a good couple of hours to pull the main tent in its entirety up and fill it up with all of the storage, as well as set up his own private tent. Joker’s arms were sore as hell from  
having to hammer the stakes into the ground, he envied how Jumbo could easily hammer five stakes in a row without so much as breaking a sweat. 

“Alright ev’rybody! We’re all finished settin’ up the camp! Don’t forget to start dinner at five o’clock, which is an hour and a half away. Rest up now!” 

He nodded as everyone cheered, despite how utterly exhausted everyone was. Joker was pleased with how quickly and smoothly they managed to set everything up. The circus didn’t usually have a lot of mishaps to begin with when it came to setting up and taking down the camp, but it was still a relief when nothing terrible happened. Joker went to his tent, intending on bathing quickly before the area became too crowded. He grabbed a change of clean clothes before going to the bathing area. 

There was hardly anyone outside of the bathing area, which is what Joker preferred since he did enjoy some privacy. Picking up a towel that sat by the entranceway before he began to pluck the bobby pins from his scalp and stripped himself of his clothes and prosthesis and placed them in a cubby. He didn’t have a problem bathing with others around, he just preferred the calm and quiet of being by himself. He picked up one the wooden buckets and a bar of soap from the stone covered ground and went to one of the pumps to fill it up with what he correctly assumed was warm water since it was summer. He seated himself on the ground, which was surprisingly cool, and began to wash himself off. He dunked his head into the bucket of water and started to wash his hair with his one hand, letting out a pleased hum as he massaged his scalp, and re-dunked his head into the bucket to rinse it out. He would have to redo his makeup once he dried off, but that was alright since he needed to redo it all anyway. Joker struggled a bit to thoroughly clean himself off, one of the more annoying things about bathing alone was that there was nobody around to wash your back for you. He grabbed the sudsy bucket and dumped it over his body to rinse himself off, though it was a little difficult considering he had one arm. 

Now feeling refreshed and clean, Joker dried off and dressed himself. As soon as he pulled on his clothes people began to enter the bathing area, making him glad that he was able to bathe earlier. He hummed to himself and walked to his tent, where he perched himself on his vanity, pinned his damp hair back with bobby pins, and re-applied his usual stage makeup. Out of the corner of his eye he saw an older photo of everyone, back when they were first adopted by Father...before everything went to shit. Joker took a moment to observe the other photos that decorated his vanity, all of them were pictures of himself and Father with the older man’s appearance sequentially getting worse and worse with each photo. He picked up and looked at the photo they had most recently taken- there was no need for him to hide his carefully masked contempt for the man, so he allowed his face to curl into a disgusted frown. The man he and the rest of the first-stringers called Father used to be an incredibly compassionate man, with kind eyes and a soft stout body that was comfortable to hug and felt safe. Everything had felt safe back then. 

And then... 

That _Phantomhive_ boy... 

Father changed for the worse, spending all of his time and money on surgeries to make him appear younger. With whatever time Father had to spare was filled with verbally and physically abusing Joker and his adopted brothers and sisters- though Joker put it on himself to take it all, taking every and any punishment Father ever lashed out no matter how terrible or humiliating. 

“Uh, Joker?” 

The young troupe leader was startled out of his thoughts, glancing back to the opening of his tent where Beast and Dagger stood. They each gave him a worried expression, Joker hadn’t realized that he was crying. He quickly dried his face off with his sleeve and sniffed before giving the two his usual smile. 

“Sorry, did ‘ee need somethin’?” 

Beast’s garnet-colored eyes wandered to the photos Joker had kept, looking back at him with understanding. Dagger, on the other hand, held his arms behind his head and spoke nonchalantly. 

“Not really, just wanted to letcha know that dinner’s ready.” 

Joker grinned eagerly, his stomach rumbling at the promise of food. He stood up from his seat and joined the two as they made their way to the mess hall. He noticed that Gypsy was nowhere in sight, much to both his relief and dismay as he took his seat at the table. 

“She’s in the back washin’ dishes, if you’re wonderin’ where your Gypsy is,” Doll said, making kissy faces at him as she walked by. 

“Oi, get to work,” Joker playfully batted her away with his hand, making her laugh her way back to the kitchen. 

Dinner among the first-stringers was filled with silence from the exhausting day they all had, everyone groaned and grunted as they forced themselves to move their sore muscles and feed themselves. Joker finished rather quickly, dropping his plate off at the sink before walking off. He whistled as he walked back to his tent, passing by another larger tent that served as a commons area for people to gather and chat, which was unusually loud. He stopped in his tracks and peered through the opening. Joker saw several of the second-tier members sitting around at the tables, all laughing heartily and making a general raucous- though he was startled when a figure slumped out and bumped into him, the person reeking of alcohol. The figure who bumped into him looked up at him, and Joker had to bite back the laugh that began to bubble up in his chest when he recognized Gypsy’s eyes looking up at him with blurry recognition as she lightly fisted his shirt. 

“Ohhhhh, hiya Joker!” 

_Oh good god_ Joker thought, internally facepalming. 

“Gypsy, are ‘ee a bit drunk per’aps?” 

She giggled at his comment and swayed in place. _She’s DEFINITLEY drunk._ Joker glanced back at the commons before settling his attention back on the drunk young woman in front of him. 

“’eadin’ off to bed now, are ‘ee?” She nodded, and he finally allowed himself to release the chuckle he had been holding back. “Right, let’s get ‘ee to yer caravan. Wouldn’t want to set a bad example on the young an’ impressionable Doll now do we?” 

Joker found it amusing whenever his family and friends became drunk, but he always wanted them to be careful so as not to get violently drunk. He had to deal with enough violent drunkards when he lived on the streets and often found himself at the brunt end of a drunk man’s fist, so he was always cautious whenever people were drinking. Needless to say, he wasn’t worried about the small woman he was helping- although she’s strong enough to hold herself up, she wouldn’t hurt a fly. 

“Jookkkeeeerrrrr,” Gypsy called out. 

“Aye?” 

She was a giggling mess, and Joker briefly wondered what she drank to make her like this. 

“Hiii!” 

Joker laughed. 

“Now what were ‘ee all doin’ in there?” 

Gypsy blinked a few times as they continued to walk, scrunching her face up a little as she thought, which Joker found cute. 

“Well, the other folks wanted to celebrate the newcomers to the circus, and so we all had a bit of a drinking contest.” She smiled up at him and gave him a thumbs-up and a wink, “I drank everyone under the table!” 

He was all too aware of what the second-tier members did and only playfully rolled his eyes at her. He knew that a couple of the second-tier folk would water down their drinks in order to win whatever drinking game they played. Jumbo often stood guard and would deal with any members who got too violent with one another, Joker briefly wondered if the large man was still there. 

“Alrighty, ‘ere we are!” 

Joker left Gypsy to stand there so he could pull down the steps to get into her caravan. As he unhooked everything he heard Gypsy drunkenly speak to Bo in her native language, though the mule remained indifferent to her. Once the stairs were all set, Joker turned to Gypsy and held his hand out to her. 

“Come on now, let’s get ‘ee to bed.” 

Gypsy turned to look at him, quickly giving him a once-over before smiling at him coyly. 

“Oh? Want to take me to bed, do you? I’m not sure if it’s proper etiquette, considering you’re my boss and all.” 

It took Joker a moment to process what she had just said, and his face reddened at the implications she had just made. 

“Nah, nothin’ like that. I’m just gonna make sure ‘ee’re alright for the night, nothin’ more.” 

Gypsy seemed disappointed and stuck her bottom lip out at him, but she finally stepped forward and took his hand, allowing him to lead her into her caravan. 

“Snake’s snakes ain’t in ‘ere, are they?” Joker asked as they climbed up the porch. 

“Noopppeeee,” she replied. “I think he’s been holding on to them ‘til everything’s all settled.” 

Joker nodded and opened the door to her caravan. It had been a while since he stepped foot in here, and it didn’t seem like she changed anything from what he could tell. 

“Alright, let’s get ‘ee changed now, eh?” 

Gypsy closed the door behind them before turning to Joker once again. Her eyes glistened mischievously, holding her arms up above her head and wiggling a little in anticipation. 

He only laughed as he stepped in front of her and gripped the edge of the fabric. 

“How come _you’re_ here with me?” she asked. “You could have sent Beast with me to do this, but you didn’t. Why is that?” 

If she hadn’t reeked of alcohol, Joker could have sworn that she was sober. He paused and assessed his words carefully before speaking again. 

“W-well,” he stammered, suddenly aware of the situation he was in. “Wendy hates dealing with drunk people, and I couldn’t find Beast anywhere...” 

She hummed in response. Joker cleared his throat and continued to set about with getting the drunk Gypsy in front of him changed. He tugged the blouse up and over her head, revealing her bare chest to him. The bandana that held her hair back fell off with her blouse, her hair cascaded over her shoulders and chest like a dark colored waterfall within his peripheral vision. He averted his eyes and avoided staring at her for too long as he tugged down her skirt, quickly turning to her trunk of clean clothes to distract himself. 

“L-let’s get ‘ee dressed now.” 

“Joker.” 

Gypsy said his name with such clarity and in such a sultry voice that it caused a shiver to shoot down his spine, and he couldn’t help the warming sensation that began to grow in his lower belly. He glanced back at her from over his shoulder to see her standing closer to him, almost directly behind him in fact, and felt her trace a finger along his shoulder and up to the side of his neck. Joker took a sharp intake of breath at the contact, the warmth in his belly daring to venture further down at her teasing. He felt her press herself against his back and her lips began to trace the back of his neck, causing him to startle slightly and quickly turn around and stand fully upright. 

“Gypsy,” Joker spoke firmly in his real voice. “I dunno what ee’re tryin’ to do, but I ain’t gonna do anythin’ with ‘ee besides ‘elp get ‘ee into bed. That understood?” 

She stared at him with shock, and her flirtatious attitude seemed to dissipate. Her eyes swelled up with tears as she looked to the ground and nodded. Joker let out a sigh as he turned back to her trunk and pulled out some clean clothes. 

“Alright, let’s get ‘ee into some clothes, aye?” 

Gypsy nodded glumly, still staring at the ground as she held her arms above her head. When Joker pulled the smock over her head, she began to quietly cry. This confused Joker and made him laugh a little bit, thinking that she was crying for some silly reason. 

“Oi, Gypsy. It’s alright, I didn’t mean to be so ‘arsh to ‘ee!” He made sure to speak softly, placing his hands on her shoulders as he guided her to sit on the bed. 

“It-it’s not that!” she exclaimed through hiccups and gasps. “I just almost did a terrible thing!” 

Joker quirked an eyebrow as he sat the two of them down on her bed. 

“Oh? And what terrible thing would that be?” 

He briefly glanced around the caravan for anything he could use as a handkerchief, which he found on one of her side tables and gave to her so she could clean herself off a bit. 

“I tried to get you to bed me, even though you said no.” 

Joker laughed a little. 

“It’s alright. ‘ee’re drunk an’ just actin’ silly, it ain’t nothin’ to worry about.” 

Gypsy buried her face in the makeshift handkerchief and broke down sobbing. Unsure of how to deal with this, Joker continued to sit next to her and wait for her to have calmed down enough to explain what was going on. 

“Y-you don’t understand!” She managed to gasp out between heaving breaths and sobs, “I-I almost d-did the same thing that...that h-he did to me!” 

Joker was confused now, just who was she talking about? He scooted closer to her and placed a hand on her back, rubbing it in soothing circles- well, as soothing as he could make them with his prosthetic hand. 

“Gypsy, ‘ow ‘bout ‘ee tell me what ‘ee’re talkin’ ‘bout?” 

He once again found himself talking in his real voice, but he made sure to speak softly. He patiently waited for Gypsy’s gasps and hiccups to calm ease up a little before she explained herself. 

“D-do you remember when I t-told you that I got kicked out of my camp?” Joker nodded, she continued. “That’s n-not the whole truth.” She took a deep breath, as if she were about to tell him something terrible. 

“Back at my camp, women were often married off when they turned fourteen to another man within the camp. It is the wife’s duty to raise children, care for her parents as well as her husband’s parents, and to cook and clean. When I was sixteen I still had not been married, which made my parents anxious. “You don’t have a husband yet,” ” she spoke in a deeper voice with a heavier accent, Joker assumed she was imitating her father, “ “you must find a husband or else you will disgrace this family!” ” 

“That’s horrible,” Joker said, suddenly noticing how close he was to her, though he didn’t mind this. 

She nodded and continued. 

“The camp’s metalsmith eventually made an arrangement with my father to wed his son Gauriel, since he was the only man in the camp who wanted to marry me,” she said the name bitterly and spat onto the floor to curse his name. “Apparently, he had already given Guariel’s father the dowry, so I had to marry him.” 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, leaning against the wall the bed rested against as she let out a sigh. 

“It is a Romani custom for a young man to court his woman by following her around while she is dressed in her finest clothing. He followed me everywhere I went and tried to grab me, asking and begging me to marry him.” She chuckled a bit to herself, a small and humorless laugh that left an equally unfeeling smile, “I turned him down each time.” 

Joker slipped his hand into hers, and she eagerly held onto it. Gypsy paused to dry her puffy eyes and blow her red nose. He couldn’t deny that he was quite proud of her for going against tradition, he was always one to break the status-quo, and she was hinting at a rather fiery side of her that he had yet to witness. He waited for her to continue. 

“After spending the entire day following me around town, I thought he had given up on me. I was perfectly alright with living by myself as a hermit in the town, as much single or widowed women did in my camp.” She paused once again, drawing her knees up to her chest and hugging them close to her with her free arm. “I had changed out of my clothes and was feeding the horses when Guariel threw me over his shoulder and carried me to the caravan that was supposed to serve as our home,” she made a motion of heaving something over her shoulder as she spoke. 

Gypsy’s voice began to waver again, and Joker could guess what terrible thing she had alluded to earlier. Her eyes began to water and she swallowed as she closed her eyes, her dark brows furrowing together as she remembered the horrible moment. 

“He...he hit me, told me how stupid I was for denying him.” 

She gripped the sleeves of her smock tightly, her knuckles turning white and her fists began shaking. Joker offered comfort by squeezing the hand he still held and rubbing his thumb along her knuckles. 

“Take yer time love,” he whispered gently. 

She nodded and dried her eyes with her skirt. 

“...he forced himself on me, to officially claim me as his.” 

Joker nodded, a sickening chill ran down his spine when she unknowingly confirmed his suspicion. He felt anger for the man who had dared to hurt this wonderful young woman. 

“I was angry at him for what he did to me,” she continued. “But when I tried to tell our families about what he did to me, all that they said was how he would not have had to force himself upon me if I hadn’t rejected him so much.” She once again snorted, though this one was full of contempt, “his mother was angry at me for “seducing him” and having sex before we were married, telling me how dirty I was and that I ruined her son by rejecting him.” 

Joker felt all color drain from his face, how could anyone be so horrible and heartless? 

“Did no one fell sympathy for ‘ee?” 

She shook her head. 

“Not even my own mother, she couldn’t look at me when I told her what had happened. She probably thought the same thing Gauriel’s mother did. My father was determined to have me marry him regardless, saying that even without the ceremony the two of us were technically already married since he made all of the settlements.” She rubbed at her arms and leaned her head against Joker’s shoulder. “The next day, as everyone was setting up for our wedding I had this...vision, that an unruly mule would trample Guariel to death. Lo and behold, Gauriel wanted a beautiful but stubborn mule as his wedding present and ignored the handler’s warnings. The mule bucked him off and stomped him until he died.” 

Gypsy shrugged, “everyone was mourning the loss except for me. The entire camp thought it was not a coincidence that Gauriel had died after I claimed that he raped me.” She chuckled, the empty sound was sickeningly sweet to Joker’s ears, especially considering the grim topic they were discussing. “They thought that I somehow bewitched the mule and forced him to kill my fiancée.” 

Joker was sure that his face was as white as a ghost, he was at a complete loss for words. 

“...shit, Gypsy. I’m...sorry to hear all of that.” 

Gypsy’s jade eyes contrasted quite heavily with the redness that surrounded them, and she took a moment to observe her caravan. 

“It’s alright though. They let me live, and they were kind enough to give me the caravan we were supposed to have along with the mule that killed him." 

Joker wanted to cry for her upon learning about what had happened to her. He placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a gentle embrace from the side. It suddenly made more sense why she didn’t want to go back to France and see her family, she must have felt betrayed by them. Joker stroked her hair, playing with a couple of her bouncy curls. 

“’ee needn’t think ‘bout any o’ them anymore, love. ‘ee’re part o’ a new family now, and we ain’t gonna do anythin’ to ‘urt ‘ee.” 

Gypsy looked up at him through sleepy and sore eyes, smiling at him as her eyes began to flutter and leaned further against Joker’s shoulder. 

“Thank you for letting me tell you all of this, I’m sorry for telling you so much.” 

Joker waved her off, standing up and guiding her to lay down as he pulled the blanket over her body. 

“Don’t even worry ‘bout it, love,” Joker said gently. “We’re all damaged ‘ere.” 

She grinned at him and nodded. Joker was about to leave before he felt her catch his coat. Looking back at her from over his shoulder he was met with the mesmerizing sight of Gypsy; her eyelids were heavy set, long eyelashes lightly fanning over her drunken pink-tinged cheeks and framing her pleading eyes, her hair was mussed beautifully, and her smock that was too big for her hung slightly off her left shoulder and exposed her neck and a small amount of cleavage. If Gypsy weren’t drunk, who knows what might have happened tonight. 

“...stay?” 

Joker felt his heart would burst at its seams. Gypsy was certainly being intimate with him, and who was he to deny her? He shed off his coat, pulled off his boots, and shimmied out of his trousers, placing them by her sofa before crawling onto the small bed with her. Unsure with how to proceed, Joker tucked himself in and at first avoided touching her. Of course, Gypsy turned over and wrapped her arms around him. 

“Thank you, Joker.” 

He smiled and pushed some of her hair back, then pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. 

“Anytime love. Let’s get some sleep now.” 

Gypsy easily drifted off into sleep, and Joker was left wondering exactly how much of this she would remember in the morning before sleep eventually found him as well. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooof. 
> 
> I definitely like particular version of Gypsy telling Joker about her past better than I did in my first version, just because I feel that it's waayyy less awkward in this version and doesn't really seem to be brought up out of nowhere.
> 
> Lemme know what you guys thought of this chapter! Don't mind me, I'm just hAvInG tHe TiMe Of My LiFe writing these terrible situations :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joker wakes up from an awkward morning after...  
> Doll injures herself, leaving the circus an empty slot for their final Summer show!  
> Joker finally comes to terms with his feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY have internet back up, so now I can post chapters at work! (even though it's my last day at my desk job...thanks wifi...) I also didn't realize that I posted chapter 5 TWICE until I was going through and trying to line the chapters up and correspond them with the chapters that I've got planned.  
> Oops.  
> Anyway, I got all of the correct number of chapters on here, so we're Gucci now.
> 
>  **Warnings:** Graphic depictions of a knee being dislocated and being popped back into place

Joker woke up from another dreamless sleep with and arm curled around the Romani woman, staring up at a brightly colored ceiling. He blinked a bit at the jarring color before he stretched his limbs above his head and arched his back, making it pop a little before he sat up. He looked down at Gypsy, who was still sound asleep, and took in her appearance. Her tight and bouncy curls had fallen in her face, her smock that she wore to bed was a little wrinkled and gathered a bit above her thighs, and she was curled up like a kitten beside him. Joker felt his heart swell a little at the sight and he chuckled quietly to himself. He leaned over her and tucked some hair away from her face before he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Oi, it’s time to wake up love.”

Gypsy stirred a little before opening her eyes, turning a little and looking at Joker through a sleepy gaze. After a moment, she quickly sat up and glanced around before wincing at the inevitable headache she had from drinking last night.

“Ugh, I feel like shit.”

Joker laughed.

“That tends to happen when ‘ee get drunk!”

Gypsy ran her hands over her face and continued to process everything as she was still waking up. She then turned to Joker, took a moment to take in his rather disheveled appearance, and jolted a bit. This sudden movement caused her to tumble off of her bed and it sounded like she rather painfully landed on the floor, which rocked the caravan slightly. Joker laughed loudly.

“Are ‘ee okay?”

The suddenly flustered Gypsy sat up quickly. He laughed more when he saw the normally calm and collected woman blush with embarrassment.

“I’m fine. But, what are _you_ doing in here?”

Joker climbed out of her bed and Gypsy seemed to blush more intensely now that she saw him standing in just his undergarments. Joker wasn’t bothered by it and simply continued to dress himself.

“Don’t ‘ee remember anythin’ that ‘appened last night?” She shook her head, _figures_ , “last night ‘ee got drunk, probably playin’ a drinkin’ game with the second-tier folk. I found ‘ee an’ took ‘ee back ‘ere, got ‘ee changed, an’ stayed with ‘ee.” He gave her a more serious look, “’eer’re lucky that I found ‘ee, who knows what might’ve ‘appened if anyone else was ‘ere.”

Gypsy nodded, her face continued to be flushed from shame.

“Did...” she looked at him and hesitated to finish her sentence, “...we didn’t _do_ anything last night, did we?”

Joker shook his head and she let out a relieved sigh.

“Nah, but ‘ee did try an’ kiss me though,” he winked at her playfully, “a downright flirt ‘ee were.”

Gypsy covered her face and groaned, making Joker laugh a little more as he pulled his trousers on.

“Tell me,” her voice was muffled from still hiding her face in her hands, “did anything else happen last night?”

Joker hummed thoughtfully and pulled his arms into the sleeves of his shirt.

“Well, ‘ee did end up tellin’ me ‘bout what ‘appened when ‘ee were in yer camp.”

Gypsy looked up at him quickly, shock written all over her face before it fell into an expression of disappointment in herself.

“...that’s great,” she muttered mostly to herself. She stood up and turned to face Joker fully, giving him an apologetic smile, “I’m sorry for being such a burden last night, I should have been more responsible with drinking.”

Joker waved her off as he stepped into his boots and tugged them up.

“No need to worry. So long as ‘ee’re safe, it’s no trouble at all.”

She gave him a rather incredulous look, then let out a sigh as she ran a hand through her hair.

“So, what’s on the agenda today?”

Joker smiled and patted her shoulder as he began to walk towards the exit of the caravan.

“For ‘ee, just stay ‘ere an’ worry ‘bout gettin’ well again. I’m sure ‘ee’re still pretty hung-over from last night, yeah?”

She nodded and smiled at him appreciatively.

“Thank you, Joker.”

He looked back at her from over his shoulder as he opened the door, taking her appearance in and savoring the moment for a little while longer before he smiled at her.

“’ee’re certainly welcome love. Get some rest now, aye?”

With that he gently closed the door behind him and practically slid down the stairs as he started whistling.

“Mornin’ Bo!” He called as he passed the donkey, who had been chewing on some nearby grass.

Joker continued whistling as he walked back to his tent until he heard someone call his name. Turning around he saw the first-tier members all standing and sitting near some crates, giving him a variety of stares. Peter, Wendy, Doll, and Dagger all gave him matching sly smirks while Jumbo looked at him indifferently. Beast looked like she was glaring at him, _why does she seem angry?_

“Ah, mornin’ all!” Joker called to his family, walking up to them.

“What were ‘ee doin’ leavin’ Gypsy’s caravan?” Dagger asked slyly.

Uh oh, this must look bad. Joker glanced back over at the turquoise cart before turning back to his family, laughing a little nervously.

“Now it ain’t what ‘ee’re all thinkin-“

“Oh?” Peter quipped. “And what is it that we’re all thinkin’, eh?”

“Your appearance is all messed up, and you’re blushing an awful lot to be innocent,” Wendy noted, her mischievous smile widening.

Joker pursed his lips out at the accusations.

“Keep yer ‘eads outta the gutter. Gypsy got drunk last night an’ I was just ‘elpin’ take care o’ ‘er, that’s all.”

They all seemed surprised.

“So, nothin’ ‘appened?” Doll asked, not bothering to hide her disappointment.

“Nope,” he replied. “Now, if ‘ee don’t mind, I’m goin’ to go change. I’ll meet all o’ ‘ee at the mess tent.”

They all grumbled a bit to themselves, though Beast seemed relieved. Joker walked back to his tent and went about changing his attire and re-applying his makeup as the events of last night re-played in his mind. He smiled to himself, glad that Gypsy had trusted him enough to tell him her deepest and darkest secret without judgement. He let out a humorless laugh; if only he could do the same for her.

*****************************************************a couple of months later********************************************************************

“Alright everyone! Time to stop practicin’, we’ve got two hours before showtime!!”

Joker watched as everyone scrambled out of the practice tent to get ready for the show. People started to put away their equipment, climb down from podiums, and readjust themselves before heading off to set up. Joker was about to head off and carry about with his own duties when he heard a crash

“Ow!! Bloody hell, son of a bitch!!”

He whipped his head at the sound of Doll’s cursing and sprinted up to his younger sister. A group of people circled around her near the ladder for the tightrope.

“Ev’ryone outta the way!” Joker called before the crowd parted so he could get to Doll.

He saw that she was lying in a fetal position clutching at her knee with Gypsy kneeling next to her. Jade briefly glanced at violet as he crouched down next to her, placing his hand on Doll’s back to help her sit up.

“Wha’ ‘appened?”

Gypsy was examining Doll’s knee, which was jutted out at an odd angle and made Joker cringe to look at. Doll began to explain what happened, though she seemed more annoyed than anything else.

“I fuckin’ missed a rung in the ladder as I was climbin’ down an’ I fell.”

Gypsy sighed as she pulled off her bandanna.

“It looks like your kneecap dislocated. Can you straighten your leg at all?” Doll did her best, but only ended up hissing in pain. Gypsy sighed. “I’m going to have to pop it back into place before we take you to Doc.” She turned to Joker and the rest of the first-tier members who had just gathered them with concern etched onto their faces, “I’m going to need you to hold her down and keep her calm.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Doll grew uneasy as Jumbo crouched down behind her to hold her steady and the rest of the first-tier members kneeling near her, “what’re ya gonna do?”

Beast took Doll’s hand, which she immediately squeezed out of nervousness.

“This is gonna hurt, squeeze my hand when it does.”

Gypsy scooted herself close to Doll’s injury and Joker waited for her to give him instructions.

“I’m going to need you to flex your hip Doll,” she said soothingly, “it’ll help make this as painless as possible.” She looked at Joker, “could you hold her leg up for me?”  
Joker did as he was told and watched her curiously. “I’m going to slowly straighten your leg out, that way it’s easier to pop back into place.”

Doll nodded, though tears stung at her eyes from the pain and slight panic of everything that was happening.

“’ee’ve done this sorta thing before?” Joker asked, Gypsy nodded.

“My father was a doctor back in my camp, I actually learned about reading palms from his books.”

She then slowly straightened Doll’s leg, who began to cringe and squeeze Beast’s hand at the pain. Before Doll’s leg was completely straight Gypsy pushed her kneecap back into place, a loud and nasty popping sound accompanying the movement. Doll let out a surprised yelp at the contact before letting out a relieved sigh as Gypsy wrapped Doll’s knee with her scarf.

“’oly shit, it stopped ‘urtin’!”

Joker helped the girl stand up, looping an arm under her armpit own to help her stand.

“Can 'ee put any weight on it?” Joker asked gently. Doll slowly stood on her injury, but Joker saw the way she winced in pain and he shook his head. “This ain’t gonna do, love. I don’t wanna risk 'ee fallin’ from the tightrope ‘cause o’ this injury,” he turned his head to Jumbo, who had just stood up. “Jumbo, take ‘er to Doc please an’ explain wha’ ‘appened.”

Doll pouted but knew better than to object when Joker was right, so she resorted to puffing her cheeks out and crossing her arms as Jumbo gently lifted her up and carried her bridal-style to the medical tent.

“Well, shit. What’re we gonna do now with Doll injured?” Peter was as annoyed as ever.

“We could just replace her with one o’ the backups?” Dagger suggested.

“Nah, that might put too much stress on a backup to be placed in front o’ an audience, 'specially since this is s'pposed to be our biggest turnout yet,” Beast said with a frown.

“Would we shorten the show? The audience ain’t gonna be happy if we did that,” Wendy pitched in.

“Well we can’t stretch our routines,” Dagger said, his voice straining slightly in frustration, “we ain’t practiced long enough to make sure it goes smoothly!”

As the group chatted Joker allowed his eyes to roam around the newcomers who were watching them warily as they packed up their belongings. Beast was right, nobody aside from the first-tier members had been in front of an audience aside from Dagger’s assistants, but they certainly wouldn’t be able to perform anything grand enough to fit Doll’s twenty-minute timeslot. Unless...

“Oi, Gypsy.” Everyone’s heads snapped to the young Romani woman, who was inching away to leave and slightly startled when her name was called. “’ow big of an audience would 'ee say ye’ve performed for?”

Gypsy held her hands behind her back.

“I’ve performed mostly in front of my camp and on the streets, but nothing quite as large as a circus crowd.”

“Do 'ee think 'ee could if we needed 'ee to?” Joker’s tone grew serious and rather urgent. “I know we ‘aven’t the chance to practice with 'ee, but this is an emergency an’ we need someone to fill in Doll’s performance time slot.”

“Aww, no way!” Dagger whined. “She was doin’ a bang-up job as me assistant! The crowd loves ‘er!”

“True, but they would love ‘er more is she was given ‘er own performing segment, yeah?” Joker’s eyes softened since she looked like a deer in the headlights as he approached her. He gently placed his left hand on her shoulder, “now I ain’t gonna force 'ee to perform if 'ee don’t want to, but understand that ye’re pretty much our last ‘ope we ‘ave for the show. What do 'ee say?”

Gypsy thought for a good long moment, the air around them grew tense as they waited for her answer. She then looked Joker in the eye and nodded.

“I can do it.”

Joker beamed and everyone let out a relieved sigh. He clapped her back with his left hand and began to guide her to the back of the tent.

“Terrific! Let’s get 'ee ready for the show then! Ye’ll ‘ave to tell me what all ye’re plannin’ on doin’, don’t forget it ‘as to be ‘bout twenty minutes long.”

“I do have a routine choreographed, hopefully the audience will like it.”

Joker smiled encouragingly.

“I’m sure they’ll love ‘ee! Let me know what sorts o' stuff ‘ee’ll need when we start prepping the stage in about an hour an’ a half. ‘til then, do whatever ‘ee need to so that ye’re ready for the performance.”

Gypsy nodded in understanding before she hurried off to get ready. Joker let out a sigh before checking his pocket watch for the time, which they had plenty of. He smiled as he thought about how well Gypsy would perform for the crowd. Her fortune telling was certainly a popular attraction to draw in audience members, he’d even seen her and Beast enter the caravan almost daily to have tea readings in the mornings. Joker couldn’t deny how much closer himself and the young woman had gotten ever since that drunken night. Gypsy and Joker would sometimes meet privately in his tent for a game of cards, or they would meet in her caravan and she they would tell each other stories from their past that often times had the both of them laughing until their bellies were sore. 

He shook his head and focused on getting ready for the show. He would have to take down the tightrope since Doll wouldn’t be performing tonight, and he would have to change up his script to replace Doll with Gypsy until her knee healed. Since this was the last performance of the summer, Doll should have plenty of time to heal and rest up before they begin the autumn season. Jumbo had just walked into the tent looking for Joker and he smiled thankfully as he walked up to meet the larger man, the rest of the first-tier members surrounded the two as well

“’ow’s she lookin’?”

Jumbo let out a tired sigh.

“Doc says it’ll take about six weeks for her knee to be completely back to normal, she’s been in bed pouting her head off.”

The group collectively chuckled, that sounds like something she would do. Dagger lifted his arms so that his hands rested behind his head.

“So, is Gypsy gonna be takin’ Doll’s place 'til she gets better?”

“Looks like it mate,” Peter began to elbow Joker’s side, “though I’m sure you ain’t gonna mind it now, are you?”

Beast glared down at Peter, Wendy snickered behind her hand.

“That also means we’ll be down a person when Father sends us out,” Jumbo’s monotone voice cut in before Joker could respond.

Now the group collectively groaned.

“Well she ain’t that useful on them missions anyway,” Peter lifted himself to sit on a nearby crate. “Never ‘ad the guts to actually kill anyone, ye know? Remember ‘ow many times you’ve told her to just do it, Joker? Maybe it’s a good thing that this ‘appened.”

Peter was right, Joker hated to admit. Out of the first-stringers, Doll was the most hesitant to ever kill someone when she had to, and it’s almost gotten their asses caught a number of times. It may have been because she was so young, ten years younger than himself in fact, but she still needed to learn that she needs to follow orders if they were to avoid being hanged for their crimes. Joker only frowned and flicked Peter’s head.

“Don’t say that ‘bout ‘er, she’s still our sister and a valuable asset for our missions,” he said sternly. “Now everyone, go an' prepare for the show. We need to make sure that everythin' runs smoothly even without Doll, it’s still the last performance of the summer season an’ we ‘ave to make it our best.”

Everyone nodded in agreement before they headed off to complete their own tasks before getting ready for the show. Joker ran his hands through his hair and silently prayed that the performance would go smoothly.

*****************************************************************showtime***********************************************************************

The audience for this show was huge, the crowd had to squeeze together like sardines in a can so that everyone could fit in the tent properly. Joker had expected a large audience for the last summer show, but this was much larger than he had thought. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he smiled broadly as the lights shone on him.

“Ladies an’ gentlemen! Boys an’ girls of all ages!”

He went through his usual opening speech, introducing himself to the audience, making them laugh before the other cast members joined him from behind. He introduced Jumbo as the first act, who always somehow manages to startle him by yelling loudly, before running off the stage with the others. They all stood backstage and watched Jumbo perform as they always did, though it did feel odd having Gypsy take Doll’s place. She stood on her toes and placed her chin on Joker’s shoulder and watched in awe as Jumbo performed his fire-breathing act.

“I’ve never had the chance to see anyone else perform aside from Dagger,” she gushed. “This is all so amazing.”

“Aye, but 'ee best be getting’ ready for yer own performance love. Ye’re gonna be right after Dagger, who’s after Jumbo for this show.”

He saw a flash of nervousness in her eyes before she hurried off to go prepare. Joker was not at all worried that the crowd would dislike her; considering how popular her fortune-telling skills were, she drew more people to the circus. Though he didn’t necessarily believe in all of her spiritual findings, they still interested him to some degree. She was quite nice to have around, even the incredibly shy Snake has started warming up to her and the other first-tier members.

“Jumbo,” Gypsy called as the large man came back behind the curtain. “Would you mind lending me a hand for my act please?”

Jumbo nodded and vanished with Gypsy. Joker was curious about her intention, but decided it would be better to be surprised and that made him giddy. He suddenly began to feel impatient and found himself pacing backstage and checking his pocket watch every so often.

“Oi, you alright Joker?”

Doll had been seated near the curtain on top of a stack of boxes so that she could still watch the performance with her crutches leaning against the crates. Joker nearly jumped at her voice, but calmed himself after.

“Yeah, just antsy I s’ppose.”

Doll gave him a suggestive smirk and Joker rose an eyebrow in response.

“You want Gypsy to do well during her performance, do you?”

Joker rolled his eyes, not this again.

“I want ev’ryone to do their best durin' performances. ‘m jus’ excited to see Gypsy’s since I ain’t ever seen ‘er perform a full routine is all.”

Annoyance began to overtake him since Doll’s grin only seemed to grow.

“But you’ve never been this anxious for any of the other members before, even when we first started the circus.”

Joker pursed his lips in thought, she did have a point. Why was it that he hadn’t felt this way for any of the other troupe members, but for Gypsy? She wasn’t much different from the rest, so why did she make Joker feel this way when others haven’t before? Maybe he should consult Father over this? No, Joker wanted to slap himself in the face for even thinking of such a stupid thing to tell Father. He knew that Father would respond horribly- he didn’t think that Father even knew what love was anymore. Father did once have a wife as far as Joker remembers, but she left him shortly after he began to obsess over that Phantomhive boy.

“Joker, you need to be on stage.”

Doll’s words snapped him out of his thoughts and he suddenly heard the thunderous applause of the audience. Joker hurried out onto the stage so that he could introduce Gypsy as the next act after congratulating Dagger on his performance. As Dagger and his assistants made their way off the stage Joker saw Jumbo wheeling something onto the stage in his peripheral vision.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a real special performance for 'ee tonight. Our lovely tightrope walker Doll unfortunately injured 'erself earlier this evenin', but we’ve been able to squeeze in another phenomenal performance for 'ee. Those of ‘ee who ‘ave been to previous performances may ‘ave noticed that she was absent from Dagger’s act, but that’s 'cause she’s got ‘er own amazin’ act for 'ee. So please welcome our newcomer, our brilliant contortionist, Gypsy!”

The audience murmured in confusion rather than excitedly cheer when he announced her performance. Confused as well, Joker turned to see Jumbo placing a box on top of a podium before he began to walk away. Panic sparked through his body so hard that he felt it buzzing in his teeth. He quickly approached Jumbo.

“Oi, oi!” Jumbo turned to the ringleader. “Where the ‘ell is Gypsy??” Jumbo pointed to the crate, and Joker placed his hands on his hips and scoffed. “If ‘ee’re tellin’ me Gypsy’s in that tiny box-"

He jolted as he heard knocking coming from the box, making the audience laugh. Hesitantly he approached it and slowly removed the lid. He gasped and jumped back as the box fell apart to reveal Gypsy, who had unbelievably contorted herself to fit in such as small space. The audience gasped at the reveal and Gypsy waved to them before she straightened herself out and stood on her feet, giving the audience a gracious bow as they applauded. She looked to Joker with a mischievous grin and winked at him. Joker was amazed at first, then his shocked expression melted away into a beaming smile as he approached her.

“I do apologize for the shock, ladies an’ gentlemen! Please enjoy this performance!”

The audience clapped and Joker’s spotlight faded out as Gypsy’s became brighter. He walked backwards to his position behind the curtain so that he wouldn’t miss a moment of her routine. Her movements were slow and precise, but the way she was able to hold herself up so effortlessly was astounding. He ignored Doll and Dagger’s grins as he slipped backstage.

“Look at ‘im, he’s truly entranced ain’t he?” Doll said to Dagger, bumping his elbow with her own.

“Aye, she told me not to tell ‘im ‘bout that openin’ bit ‘cause she wanted to surprise ‘im with ‘er skills. She didn’t disappoint, evidently.”

Joker held up a bony finger at the two to silence them and sat down on the ground with his legs crossed so he could watch a bit more comfortably and give his legs a bit of a break. The two simply giggled and watched along with him. 

Gypsy leaned forward into a split and slowly held herself up with one hand. With the other she reached into the front of her costume and pulled out a cigar and some matches, which she proceeded to light with her feet and smoke casually. The audience and Joker laughed at her whimsy and clapped as she snuffed the cigar out and moved into another position. After some time watching Gypsy fold herself into all sorts of odd and amazing poses, Joker noticed one of Dagger’s assistants bringing out a target and a bow and arrow. He immediately grew excited.

“She’s goin' to do the thing where she shoots the arrow with ‘er feet!! I’ve seen ‘er do it durin’ practice!!” He excitedly tapped Dagger’s prosthetic leg with his own prosthetic arm, which made a clinking sound as the two fake limbs collided.

Dagger rose a curious brow, both at his elder’s reaction and at his description of what Gypsy was about to do.

“’ow’s she gonna do that?”

“Shhhh, watch!” Wendy scolded.

The entire first-tier member cast was watching Gypsy now. Beast, who had just now come up behind the lot, frowned at how Joker had been intently focused on Gypsy’s performance but kept her mouth shut and watched as well. The audience and Joker were practically at the edge of their seats as Gypsy held herself up into a handstand and drew out an arrow from a sling another one of Dagger’s assistants had handed her with her toes. She then picked up the bow with her other foot, set the arrow across the string, and drew it back while she carefully aimed. The audience nervously whispered amongst themselves and even some of the other first-tier members grew anxious, but Joker eagerly bit his lip and leaned forward in anticipation.

Then the arrow was released.

Everyone held their breaths as it flew through the air. Dagger covered his eyes out of fright that it might hit someone.

The arrow pierced the dead center of the target.

The crowd went absolutely crazy. Joker probably should have considered moving the schedule around some more so that she could have been the final act based on how well the crowd responded. The first-tier members cheer and cry out with the crowd. Doll even forgot about her injury and stood up to clap before crying out in pain and falling over, Wendy and Beast had to pull her back up and set her firmly on the crates.

Joker ran out to meet Gypsy at the end of her performance. She bowed to the standing audience, Joker smiled so wide that his face may as well split in half. She beamed back up at him and threw her arms around him. Joker took her hand in his left one and interlaced their fingers together as he held their arms up, though she stood up on her tip-toes to reach the height of Joker’s arm.

“Give it up to Gypsy for a truly amazin' first performance!”

The crowd’s cheers and applauding became absolutely deafening and lasted for at least another three minutes before Joker managed to calm them down. Gypsy bowed once again before trotting off the stage, Joker laughed as the audience began to chant “encore!”.

“Now, now, settle down ev’ryone! We’ve still quite a few acts before the encore, but we’re certain they will blow 'ee away all the same. Please welcome our two phenomenal trapeze artists, Peter an' Wendy!!”

Joker rushed off to reach the backstage as the two performed and practically tackled Gypsy into spinning hug, lifting her up in the air and twirling her rather effortlessly due to his excitement. Although she was startled, she laughed along with him and the others.

“'ee were amazin’ out there!” Joker said. “I ain’t ever seen anythin’ quite like what 'ee did out there, an' to get a crowd to respond like that during yer first show?? Incredible is what 'ee are!!”

Gypsy blushed and rubbed the back of her neck when Joker finally set her down.

“Well thank you for the compliments! I’ve trained hard so that I would be successful with the bow and arrow trick.” She then turned to Doll, who took up her crutches and headed over to them. “Is your knee feeling any better?”

Doll grinned and nodded.

“Definitely! You were wonderful out there, you were!”

“Yeah. This one got so excited by your arrow trick tha’ she forgot ‘bout ‘er knee and ended up fallin' ‘cause of it,” Beast had now joined the conversation, this time with a soft smile etched onto her rouge lips. “You did very well for your first performance.”

Gypsy lit up at Beast’s compliment and Joker shot her an appreciative smile. He then felt a tug on his sleeve. Turning his head revealed Snake gently leading him a bit away from the group and Joker grew concerned.

“Somethin’ the matter Snake?”

The white-haired young man shook his head as one of his snakes, Emily, Joker believed, lifted its head and looked at Joker.

“...“You look at Gypsy the same way Dagger looks at Beast”...says Emily.”

Joker felt his heart pound in his chest at the comment. Dagger adored Beast and often gushed about how he plans on marrying her someday, always declaring his love for her in any way he could. Joker never did anything of the sort towards Gypsy and mostly kept his feelings and thoughts to himself, was he really that obvious? Joker frowned and ran a hand through his hair out of frustration.

“Not ‘ee too. Yeah, Gypsy an’ I ‘ave gotten close since she’s been ‘ere, but that don’t mean I’m in love with ‘er or anythin’.”

Snake nervously scratched his nose as his snakes coiled around his shoulders.

“...“I never said anything about you being in love with her~,”...says Emily.”

Joker looked back at the young Romani woman, who was still being praised by the other first-tier members. She caught him staring and they held eye contact for what seemed like an eternity, it was almost like the whole world suddenly stopped around the two. Joker felt his heart begin to swell up as he saw her lips stretch into one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen.

And it was in that moment in time that Joker realized that he had fallen head-over-heels in love with Gypsy.

“...shit.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the performance is done, the circus has a little celebration. Eventually, Joker and some of the other first-string members get a little tipsy after playing a drinking game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been re-reading some of the chapters that I already posted and have been making some relatively minor edits throughout. Talking about this particular chapter, there have been some minor changes in comparison with the original version that I wrote.
> 
> I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter, I think that it's relatively cute.

After the performance was done, it was often a tradition for the circus folks to throw a wild party to celebrate the end of the summer performances. Joker was incredibly excited; he absolutely loved these parties and was quite fond of the dancing that would take place. Once everyone had showered and dressed up, and all the circus members gathered into the mess hall, though this time all the tables were pushed along the tent walls to leave a large enough space for dancing. Amazing food had been made, and first-tier and second-tier members alike all gathered into the tent to join in on the merrymaking. Everyone had dressed up as nicely as a circus troupe could to celebrate the last show of the summer season. 

Joker had spruced up quite a bit, wearing his nicer clothes that included a pair of purple and black vertical striped slacks, a plain black dress shirt, a green and black vertically striped waist coat, and a pair of black dress shoes. He tamed his usually unruly hair to be slicked back with his bleached strands left unbraided and pulled into a small ponytail, and decided against wearing any sort of makeup. He arrived early to make sure that the preparations were set, so he stood off to the side, leaning against a pole as he watched everything start to come into place. A sudden impressed whistle sounded from beside him.

“You certainly clean up well, don’t you?”

Looking to the side he saw Gypsy had brought out another tray of food out onto one of the tables, she hadn’t yet changed out of her casual attire. Joker pretended to be offended.

“What’s that supposed to mean then? Don’t I normally look good?”

Gypsy set down the tray and gave him a teasing smile.

“Of course you always look good, I’m just saying that you look especially handsome tonight.” She then brushed past him, their bodies barely touching. “Now if you’ll excuse me, 

Doll asked me to help her get ready.”

Joker felt his face grow warm as she left. Especially after he remembered what Snake had old him earlier, thoughts began to flood his mind. She thinks I always look good? And she called me handsome, what does that mean? Does she find me attractive then? Does she love me back? He yelped as he felt a sudden clap on his back and an annoying elbowing in his side, which, of course, came from Dagger and Peter.

“Ain’t you a lucky one, eh?” Dagger said with a wink.

“We ‘eard that little exchange between you two lovebirds,” Peter said as he continued to elbow Joker.

The two young men were also dressed up. Dagger wore a black and white vertically stripped jacket over a gray dress shirt and a gray lacy cravat with a black waist coat, black slacks, and black boots. Peter wore a checkered black and bright green dress shirt with a black vest, a pair of black slacks, and black dress shoes. Joker scoffed at the two and shooed them away, and as he took a step forward he bumped into Jumbo, who wore a plain black suit with a white dress shirt and a black top hat.

“Whoops, sorry Jumbo I wasn’t payin’ attention to where I was goin’.”

Jumbo nodded and before Joker could walk away, Jumbo stopped him.

“You know, it’s not going to hurt anyone to drabble in romance.” At this point Joker was frustrated with everyone telling him to get together with the contortionist, but before he could retort Jumbo interrupted him. “What Father doesn’t know won’t kill him.” The large man gently patted a stunned Joker’s back. “You deserve to have some happiness in your life, Joker.”

As Jumbo walked away Joker was left standing in the middle of the mess hall blinking, silently processing what Jumbo had said. _I deserve to have some happiness? But aren’t I already happy where I am now?_

He watched as more and more people entered the tent, observing how everyone mingled and laughed amongst one another. Peter and Wendy were causing mischief as usual, running around and laughing madly when Wendy lost her footing and tripped over the skirt of her pink dress. He supposed that somewhere in the emptiness inside himself, he could find some happiness in his heart; but was he really content? He certainly wasn’t happy or content with the missions Father gave him and the rest of the first-tier members, how could he be? His face dropped a little the more he thought: Jumbo is wrong, Joker does not deserve anything good in his life after all of the atrocious acts he has committed.   
Joker shook his head and instead concentrated on chatting amongst the other members.

“You alright Joker?”

He apparently hadn’t noticed Beast approach him, he seemed to be having trouble noticing the world around him as of late. Beast wore one of her usual tight-fitting black corsets over a delicate looking red satin sleeveless dress, which accentuated her cleavage. She wore generally neutral makeup and her curly hair was left down in its natural state. She looked as beautiful as she always did. Joker waved her question off.

“Aye, ‘m fine.” He gave her a half smile. “You look lovely tonight.”

A light blush decorating Beast’s cheeks

“And you look as dashing as always.”

Joker smiled in return.

“Beast~!” The two looked and saw Dagger sling his arm around Beast’s shoulders. “You look absolutely stunnin’ you do!”

Joker laughed as Beast was dragged away, showering her with every compliment he could think of. Joker merely shook his head and continued to wait for everyone to arrive, mentally checking off members of the circus as they entered the mess tent. He even saw Snake enter, with his hair in its natural state and wearing a jacket suit that was far too big for him, a plain cream-colored dress shirt, some gray slacks, and brown dress shoes.

“Goodness me!” Joker exclaimed as he approached the snake-man, who jumped a little at Joker’s voice behind him before whirling around. Joker gave him his usual grin, “’ee’re lookin’ a wee bit childish in this oversized jacket ‘ee know.”

Joker then set about with rolling up the jacket sleeves, Snake stood there with a mad blush on his cheeks and allowed Joker to fix his attire. Joker then noticed that none of Snake’s snakes were around him as they usually were, which made him curious.

“Say, Snake?” The shy young man looked up at him with his golden-colored eyes, “where are ye’re snakes at?”

Snake hesitated a bit, then he tucked some of his silver locks behind his left ear- revealing a teeny tiny snake sitting on top of his ear.

“...“I thought that it would be best for everybody if I kept my other snakes locked up, but he always keep me with him,”... says Donne.”

Joker chuckled as he observed the small slithering creature.

“Well, I ain’t ever been introduced to this fellow b’fore!” He patted Snake gently on the back once he finished adjusting his coat, “full o’ surprises, ‘ee are!”

Snake blushed even more at Joker’s comment, Joker chuckled at the flustered man before excusing himself to make a headcount of everybody before they started the celebration. 

The only people who seemed to be missing were Doll and Gypsy, which was odd considering how punctual the two usually were.

“Can’t we just start without them?” A grumpy and hungry Peter whined.

Before Joker could reprimand Peter, he heard Doll’s voice outside of the tent from right behind them.

“I can’t believe how long it took us to get ready!” Doll complained.

“I can’t believe how many dresses you ended up soiling while getting ready,” Gypsy replied teasingly, which made Joker and others laugh.

Doll crutched into the tent first wearing a dress with white poofy long sleeves, a light blue faux corset, and a black skirt that reached her knees, white stockings, and black ballet shoes. She looked rather cute. 

Gypsy entered after her and Joker was in awe. 

The Romani woman wore a floor length golden-colored gown with long sleeves that cascaded off her shoulders and a skirt that slightly billowed out. It was lined with a lovely sky-blue fabric which was decorated with red flowers. Her curled hair fell along her shoulders and rippled down her back which was, surprisingly, bare of a bandanna that she usually wore. Upon entering the tent, everyone stared at the last two people to arrive and Gypsy blushed.

“Oh dear, I feel a bit overdressed,” she said with a nervous laugh.

Dagger came up to her and grabbed her hands, then began to spin her in a circle.

“You ain’t overdressed in the slightest, love! You look amazin’, don’t she Joker?”

He then released her hands and flung her into Joker’s arms. The two shyly looked each other over before stepping away from the other’s embrace. Joker coughed as Gypsy rocked back and forth on her heels.

“Erm...’ee do look...beautiful tonight.”

The way Gypsy’s eyes lit up at his compliment only confirmed that he had fallen hard for her. Damnit.

“Thank you, Joker.”

“Yeah, yeah, you love each other. Can we PLEASE eat now?” Peter interrupted as he impatiently waited as the first in line with a plate in his hands.

Gypsy snorted. Joker stepped away and coughed awkwardly, then stood up on a nearby chair to make an announcement.

“Alright ev’ryone, listen up!” All eyes were on him now, aside from Peter who was more concentrated on the food. “I know that this summer season was tough an’ a bit hotter than expected, but I’m proud o’ each an’ ev’ry one o’ 'ee for givin’ yer all for the circus. Tonight, we celebrate all of our accomplishments an’ the achievements we’ve encountered, an’ may we ‘ave an even greater autumn season.”

Everyone clapped at his words as he hopped off the chair, and the band began to play. Peter took that as his cue to start filling his plate with food and everyone joined him. As   
Joker joined the line, he grabbed two plates: one for himself and one to bring to Doll since she was still injured. Once he filled the plates, he brought them back over to the table she resided and handed the fuller plate off to her.

“You’re the best,” she said appreciatively as she placed the plate in front of her and began to dig into her food- it always amazed Joker to see how such a tiny thing like Doll could eat so damn much. “So, ‘ave you admitted your feelings for Gypsy yet?” She asked teasingly.

Looking behind him, he saw that Gypsy had brought the band members plates of food, then he looked back at Doll, who had stopped eating she was so eager for his reply.

“...not yet.”

Doll nearly choked on her food and looked at him in shock.

“YOU’RE FINALLY ADMITTIN’ IT???” Joker had to laugh at Doll’s excitement.

“I know just how you can do it, too.” Dagger had joined in on the conversation as he sat down next to Joker, taking Joker’s hand into his own. “Get ‘er to dance with you, and then after a few dances when you’re slow dancin’ you take ‘er hands in your own, just like this, tell ‘er ‘ow much you adore ‘er, an’ go in for a kiss.”

Dagger began to lean in with his lips pursed, almost as if he were pretending Joker was Beast. He pushed Dagger’s face away to avoid his lips, which made Doll laugh heartily. Dagger was certainly more romantic than Joker was, but what he had suggested nearly made Joker cringe-it seemed like the type of stuff that would be featured in an old woman’s romance novel, which wasn’t his way of wooing romantic partners. Joker hadn’t had much experience with romance, considering how he scared off any potential romantic partner off with his missing arm. But then he thought about Gypsy, thinking about how she was just as inexperienced as he was. She didn’t seem frightened or turned off by his missing appendage at all, just as how he wasn’t put-off by her past and being Romani. Joker was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Doll whining and pouting.

“It ain’t no fun bein’ injured when ev’ry one else is dancin’”

“Then ‘ee shouldn’t ‘ave injured yerself in the first place.” He meant to be teasing, but seeing how he had only made her more upset he stood up. Joker bowed dramatically in front of Doll and held his hand out to her, “may I 'ave this dance, my lady?”

Doll burst into a fit of giggles.

“It sounds funny ‘earin’ you talk all proper like that.”

“I can be a gentleman once in a while, ‘ee know,” Joker replied as he carefully helped Doll out onto the floor.

She was at his chest in height but grew a little taller when she stepped onto his feet, like she used to when she was younger. Joker led her into a slow dance, telling her cheesy jokes and the like to make her laugh. It was a wonderful time, since he hadn’t really had the time to spend with his youngest sister, and it lasted until she saw Snake separate from Gypsy and head back to his seat. She hopped off Joker’s feet and pushed him towards Gypsy, causing him to bump into her and nearly knock her off her feet.

“I’m so sorry!” Joker had embraced her to prevent her from falling from the impact, then sent Doll a sour look.

Doll merely snickered behind her hand as she linked her arm with Snake’s.

“I’ll be joinin’ Snake at the table, feel free to dance the night away you two!”

She then hobbled off with Snake. Even Dagger and Jumbo gave him thumb-ups some distance away. Joker looked down at Gypsy and cleared his throat as they took a step back from one another. The two perked up as the band started playing one of Joker’s favorite dancing songs- it was a faster upbeat song that he absolutely loved- and she looked at him timidly.

“Erm, would you mind teaching me the steps of this dance? I’m not very familiar with English dances and unfortunately neither is Snake.”

Joker laughed heartily and took her hands in his own.

“No worries! This be an easy song to dance to, an’ I’m sure ‘ee can pick up the steps right quick.” The two started by facing each other with their hands held out between them, he beamed at her. “’ee ready? An’ ‘ere we go!”

Though she stumbled over her feet a couple of times, Gypsy caught on to the dance rather quickly and ended up laughing along with Joker as the two twirled and spun to the catchy tune. This reminded Joker of when they first met, especially during the tightrope walking part of her audition when he was teaching her in a similarly to how he was now. He remembered how he convinced himself that there was no way that the two could possibly enter a relationship. And now, just a few months later, he had realized that he couldn’t imagine life without her.

Joker didn’t even know how long the two had been dancing until he noticed the area became less crowded and he realized that most people had left. He pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time- the party had started at about eight thirty and it was now nearly midnight! The two dancing fools had been at it for nearly three hours!

“Oi, Joker!”

The ginger haired man searched for whoever called his name and saw Peter waving at him, though what Peter was calling Joker over for he had no idea. But as he and Gypsy joined him at the table he saw not only Peter but also Wendy, Dagger, and Jumbo siting at the table with Beast, Doll, and even Snake gathered around. Peter held the bottle of Grand Matureness Scotch Whiskey that he had (apparently) stolen from Joker’s tent and some shot glasses.

“The ‘ell do ‘ee think 'ee’re doin’?” Joker placed his hands on his hips and held a displeased frown on his face.

“Since we’ve got tomorrow off we figured we would ‘ave ourselves a little drinking competition,” Wendy explained as she looked over her shoulder up at him.

“That still don’t explain why ‘ee took tha’ bottle from me tent.”

Joker only had the bottle to drink on very rare occasions with Jumbo and Peter when they needed to discuss plans dealing with Father. Knowing that Peter found the alcohol meant that Joker needed to find a better hiding place. Joker was disappointed to say the least.

Peter waved him off.

“Come off it, we’re celebratin’ remember?” Peter then cringed at the glare Joker was giving him. “Sorry, but this is the only bottle o’ booze you’ll let us drink from.”

Joker had folded his arms over his chest while Peter sassed him, something that he was not in the mood for tonight. After a few beats of tense silence Joker finally relented with a sigh as he sat down.

“Fine.” He said curtly, speaking in a manner that it was not ‘fine’. “But the next time ‘ee sneak into me room ye’re a dead man.”

Gypsy sat next to him and quickly changed the subject.

“I don’t think I’ve ever played any English drinking games, how do they work?”

“Eh, we ain’t too creative” Dagger explained. “We just take regular parlor games an’ add drinkin' to 'em.”

The Romani woman blinked in response and Joker snorted.

“Is ev’ryone who’s sittin’ down playin’ then?” Joker asked as he passed the shot glasses around.

“Aye, I would say so.” Peter then shot Jumbo a confident smirk, “I’m gonna match you drink for drink, Jumbo. Just watch!”

Everyone scoffed at him or groaned and rolled their eyes. Jumbo belted out a fake laugh, startling Gypsy a little, before his face settled back into his neutral position.

“I don’t want you dying from alcohol poisoning, Peter. Don’t push yourself too hard just so you can beat me.”

Peter stood up to lean his elbow on the table and looked at Jumbo with a pout.

“You’re not my mom.”

“Calm it down there, tiger,” Wendy tugged on the back of Peter’s shirt, knocking him back into a seated position in the chair. “So, what are we playin’ first?”

“I wanna see you play ‘Artist’!” Doll piped up. She had always found it entertaining to watch her elders get drunk while attempting to draw. They all looked at each other and agreed to it. “I’ll get the paper and ink!” Doll chirped and scampered off.

“’Artist’?” Gypsy asked. “What’s ‘Artist’?”

Beast explained the game before Joker could.

“See, whatcha do draw somethin’ while bein’ timed. The timer is done when someone correctly guesses what you’re drawin’, an’ for ev’ry twenty seconds it took to figure out what you're drawin' you ‘ave to take a shot. So if it takes us, say, forty seconds for us to figure out Joker drew a dog then ‘e ‘as to take two shots.”

“What if you aren’t good at drawing?” Gypsy asked quietly.

“Then you’d better prepare for one ‘ell of a hangover tomorrow,” Dagger replied with a laugh.

Doll came limping back with a stack of papers, an ink well, and a pen. She set them all down on the table, though not without spilling ink on herself.

“For god’s sake, you clumsy child,” Beast groaned as she immediately stood to examine the damage Doll had done to her dress and frowned at the stains. “Hurry an’ change, we ain’t gonna wait on you.”

Doll bashfully laughed and limped off to her own tent.

“Should we each take a shot or two before we start?” Wendy suggested. “It would be more fun if we all started off equally tipsy.”

Once again, they all agreed and held their glasses out for Joker to pour the whiskey into. Once everyone’s glass was full, they held them up and clinked them all together.

“Cheers to an amazin' season,” Joker said, which was followed by a chorus of ‘cheers’ before they all swallowed their shots.

Everyone but Jumbo cringed at the burning sensation the hard liquor caused, Gypsy and Wendy coughed as tears swelled in their eyes.

“Been a while since I’ve taken a straight shot o' this stuff,” Joker said, though his voice was humorously strained from the alcohol no matter how many times he cleared his throat. 

“Round two?”

The other five people nodded and held their glasses out again for Joker to fill. They once again clinked their glasses together in ‘cheers’ and swallowed the burning liquid. The reactions were much worse, Beast and Snake quietly snickered.

“So-” Dagger cleared his throat and people laughed at his hoarse-sounding voice. “Who wants to go first?

“I can,” Gypsy volunteered as she reached for a piece of paper and the pen.

Doll had just rejoined them and peered over Gypsy’s shoulder. Joker pulled out his stopwatch and handed it off to Snake, labeling him as the ‘designated time-keeper’.

“...“Ready?”...asks Donne.” Gypsy nodded, “...“go!”...says Donne.”

Gypsy immediately began to doodle on the paper while everyone watched over her shoulder. Joker had no idea what she was drawing, so far it was just an oval with four sticks coming out of it.

“Is it an animal?” Dagger asked. Gypsy nodded.

They all stood in confused silence as they continued to intently watch her doodle. She drew another smaller oval that would serve as the head with two little triangles jutting out from the sides as well as two other sticks. Soon they were all laughing at how bad of an artist Gypsy was, even she was struggling to focus on drawing she was laughing so much.

“I don’t understand what it’s supposed to be, is it a cow?” Joker asked between giggles.

“No!” Gypsy managed as she continued to doodle.

“Okay, it’s an animal with horns. That’s all I know,” Peter sounded very focused on the game.

“Is that supposed to be a tail?” Doll asked as she pointed toward the end of the larger oval where a weird poofy form was. Once Gypsy nodded Doll burst into laughter.

“I’m not an artist, okay?” Gypsy was laughing just as hard as everyone around her was.

Once she drew the eyes of her creature, it became easy to distinguish.

“OH!! It’s a goat!!” Dagger called out.

Gypsy set the pen down and pointed at him.

“’ow long was that Snake?” Joker asked.

Snake stopped the watch and he peered at the device.

“...“A minute and three seconds.”...says Donne.”

They all laughed as Joker began to fill up three shots for her. Gypsy folded her arms over the table and buried her head there, her shoulders quaking as she laughed.

“C’mon Gypsy,” Joker nudged at her elbow. “Three shots down the hatch!”

Gypsy sat up, her cheeks red from embarrassment and looked at the drinks presented to her. She picked up the first glass, took a deep breath, and swallowed the shot, but not without cringing.

“This does not taste very pleasant!” she whined.

“What did you drink with your camp?” Dagger asked.

Gypsy coughed after swallowing her second shot.

“We still drink the hard stuff,” she sputtered between coughs, “but it was a honey whiskey. It was not as strong as this stuff,” she explained before swallowing her last shot, coughing and covering her mouth with the back of her hand. “Who’s next?” She asked hoarsly.

“’and me that pen,” Joker said as he grabbed a scrap piece of paper, Gypsy laughed as she handed off the pen and pushed the ink well towards him.

“...“Annddd, go!”...says Donne.”

Joker quickly dipped the pen into the ink well, though because of how quick he moved he ended up spilling over the ink well, which caused a cloud of black ink to consume the blank space of the paper.

“Oh no!” Joker cried out between fits of laughter.

“Jesus, Joker!” Wendy chided playfully.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I can work with this!”

Joker used the pen to push the ink around on the paper into an obscure shape, Joker laughed at himself the entire time he was doodling.

“Is it a cloud?” Jumbo asked, tilting his head slightly to get a different angle on the drawing.

“Nuh-uh!” Joker replied. “Oh shit, I messed it up! Oh wait-no, this is fine! I can fix it!”

Everyone burst into laughter at Joker’s commentary.

“Is it...a bird?” Gypsy eventually asked.

Joker twirled the tip of his pen at her, queuing that she was on the right track.

“Oh, oh! Shit, what’s a black bird called in English?”

“Raven!” Peter practically screeched, “you drew a raven!”

“Peter is correct!” Joker called out. “Time?”

Beast peered over Snake’s shoulder and laughed.

“...“Two minutes and ten seconds.”...says Donne.”

Everybody laughed and “ohh’ed” at Joker’s misfortune, having to take six shots. Joker shrugged as Jumbo poured the liquor into the glasses.

“Meh, good thin’ I can 'andle me liquor pretty well!”

Beast rolled her eyes.

“Joker, the last time you got drunk I found you half naked in the horse stable.

Joker turned to her, laughing at himself along with everyone else.

“I wanted to hang out with the horses, I thought they were lonely!”

This made Gypsy laugh a little more, causing her to snort. Joker then remembered that hearing her snort was what first made him fall for her. Everyone laughed and pointed at her.

“Yoouuu snorted!” Dagger said, though his speech was already slightly slurred, as he gripped Gypsy’s shoulder and began to shake her from side-to-side.

Joker nearly choked on his shot when she snorted again he was laughing so much, eventually finishing all six of his shots like a pro. The game went on for an hour and a half. Dagger took one shot because he had decent enough art skills to draw a pig, Peter was such a lightweight that he nearly forgot what a dog looked like after only having the two shots beforehand and passed out halfway between taking his next two shots, Wendy took a shot for her identifiable cat drawing, Jumbo didn’t need to take a shot since he only barely started his drawing before Doll shouted out that he was drawing Betty the tiger, and Gypsy took another three shots because she really sucks at drawing-though they didn’t make her take more than three since she was already pretty drunk and nobody wanted to risk alcohol poisoning. Needless to say, most of them were plastered- including Joker.

“Guys, me ‘and is getting’ cramped up from this game,” Joker said, and though his words were comprehensible he was border-line drunk. He felt a pleasant buzz through his body as the alcohol moved through his system.

“Yup, I think it’s time we all went to bed,” Beast suggested as she helped Wendy carry Peter back to their shared tent. “Goodnight ev’ryone!”

They all grunted back in response, and Joker didn’t really notice that everyone else had left until it was just himself and Gypsy at the table. He frowned as he picked up the now empty bottle of alcohol, turning it over so that whatever remaining contents it had dripped out onto the table.

“Oh shit, Joker! I didn’t think you’d be here still!” Gypsy’s words were a bit slurred, but Joker was still somehow able to understand her.

He looked around with confusion etched into his features.

“Well where else would I 'ave gone?”

She shrugged.

“I dunno. Everyone else has gone to their tents, I thought you’d be in yours.”

His room. Joker was suddenly very aware of how sleepy he was.

“’ave you seen me tent? ‘ee wanna go there with me?” He stood up and nearly crashed down into the ground from bumping into the table. Joker let out a loud whine. “I ain’t got an arm an’ now me legs ain’t workin’ no more!”

He heard Gypsy cackling as she stumbled over to him and helped him stand up.

“Where’s your tent again? You said I’ve never been there, so I haven’t been there before and I don’t know where it is.”

Joker nodded in agreement at the nonsense she just babbled and pointed to where his tent was.

“’t’s jus’ down ‘ere, it ain’t too far from ‘ere.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when two drunks slink away into a private tent? Certainly nothing innocent!
> 
> This chapter does contain drunk sex, so if you are uncomfortable with the subject then please **DO NOT READ!!!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a bit of writer's block with this chapter, so I apologize for posting this chapter so late.

The two tripped and stumbled along the way to Joker’s private tent, laughing in their drunken stupor at themselves and at each other until they finally made it to Joker’s tent. 

“Ah, ‘ere we are!” Joker hiccupped, “’ome sweet ‘ome!”

Gypsy almost immediately tripped over something as soon as she stepped into the pitch-black tent, Joker belted out a laugh when he heard the crash.

“’ang on, lemme turn on a lamp!”

Joker knew his way around his room, so he managed to blindly walk into the dark tent. Though he fell and ran into a couple of things along his way and quietly cursed to himself, he was able to turn on the kerosene lamp on his desk and illuminated the tent. Once Gypsy stepped inside, she took a moment to look around his rather cluttered tent; on one of the walls of the tent, Joker hung up the older models of his arm to remind himself that he needed to be grateful to Father and all that he had done. Across from the entrance was his vanity where he keeps his own personal collection of makeup with the mirror facing the entrance so he could see who was entering if he was caught in the middle of getting prepared, though it was littered with various brushes and tins of cream makeup that he needed to clean. To the left of the entrance was his desk, which held various older photographs of himself and the other first-tier members from when they were younger and first adopted by Father. Across from that was his bed with his trunk for clothes at the foot of it.

As soon as Joker had turned on the lamp, he attempted to quickly remove his clothes but ended up getting caught in them- specifically the buttons, which ended up getting tangled in his hair.

“’ow the ‘ell does this work??” He asked aloud as he struggled to free himself from his shirt and vest, eventually falling onto the floor and further tangling himself in his clothes.

Gypsy laughed as he fell to the floor and she held a hand out to help him up.

“Here, lemme help.”

She guided Joker to sit on the bed so she could have better access at detangling the mess of buttons he was caught up in. He blushed as he felt her chest press against his face as she reached forward to free his hair.

“Why do you even have these? What purpose do they serve?” She asked as she waved the bleached strands of hair at him, tickling his face and causing him to laugh, which in turn caused her to laugh. “Quite squirming, I’m almost done with your hair!”

“Then quit ticklin’ me!” He replied between sputters.

Soon enough Joker was finally free from the tangled mess and was able to successfully remove his shirt and vest. He then flopped himself backward and let out a loud sigh as he shut his eyes, almost forgetting that Gypsy was in his tent as well.

“Can I stay here with you?” Joker nearly jumped out of his skin and sat up only to notice her standing awkwardly at the end of the bed. “I don’t really wanna have to walk all the way to my tent in this state.”

Joker felt a blush heat up his face and a nervous jolt ran down his spine. She swayed in place and held her elbow in the opposite hand as she waited for him to answer. Joker distracted himself by kicking off his shoes and tossing them off into some corner of the room before hesitantly removing his trousers.

“Yeah, sure. I ain’t got a problem with it!”

Gypsy grinned at his response, but turned around and held her hair up to reveal her dress, which held together by several strings in a similar manner as a corset.

“Can you,” she hiccupped, “untie this for me? I can’t really do it by myself.”

Joker stood up so fast that he nearly fell over. He tried to calm himself down as he approached her and forced his drunken self to concentrate on untying her dress. He took the two yellow strings and began to pull apart the little bow that had been made, watching as the pretty fabric slowly fell apart to reveal her bare flesh to him. As the dress pooled at her feet Gypsy stepped out of it as well as her bloomers and turned unabashedly toward him, and Joker took the sight of her body in. She was certainly small with a lean figure, but she was still quite lovely. Her hair fell to the tops of her breasts which were supple enough for Joker to plainly see the roundness of, with rosey colored nipples that stood pert from the sudden chill in the room. Her legs were a bit long for her body, there was a tuft of curls in that curious area between her legs, and when he looked into her jade eyes they seemed to sparkle in the candle light of the oil lamp he left on. All in all, she was gorgeous.

“Can I have one of your shirts to sleep in?”

Joker nodded as he turned around to his trunk and pulled out a clean shirt. He jumped when he felt her press herself against his bare back and wrap her arms around his front.

“Somethin’ I can ‘elp ‘ee with?”

He felt her shake her head and nestle her face between his shoulder blades.

“Sleepy.”

He felt himself begin to harden at the feel of her soft naked form against his own half-naked body. He was incredibly tempted to follow through with the sudden lustful urges that surged through him, hell at this point he was too far gone to even remember anything that had to deal with his fears of Father, which would have prohibited him from doing this when he was sober.

“Oi, Gypsy...”

He turned to face her, but was instead greeted with her cupping his face and pulling him down to her lips. Though he was surprised at first, he eventually regained control of himself as much as he could manage in his drunken state. He moved his left hand to tangle in her hair and allowed his right hand to slide down to gently rest against her rear. He felt her sigh through her nose as it blew against his cheek at the feel of bare skin touching bare skin. She tilted her head up to kiss him properly, deeply, and passionately. He dared to swipe his tongue against her bottom lip and she accepted, allowing their tongues to entangle together in a rather sloppy kiss; neither one of the two seemed to mind the fact that the other tasted like the whiskey they had consumed.

Joker guided the two to the bed, though they ended up falling on it anyway due to Joker losing his footing. They broke the kiss and laughed breathlessly at the new position they were in; Joker lay on his back sideways upon his bed with Gypsy straddling him, looking very sensual with her mussed hair framing her face. Joker was reminded of when she was drunk and he was sober, remembering how much he had wanted her back then. He sat up and ran his hands up from her knees to her thighs, then trailed them up her sides. He curiously watched her react as his hands roamed this unfamiliar territory that he was determined to memorize. She bit her lip and placed her arms around his neck, then tilted her head back and softly moaned as his left hand brushed her breast, which encouraged him to fully take her breast into his palm. He busied himself with kissing the side of her neck and teased her by trailing his prosthesis hand along her back and side.

“Joker.”

His name was barely a whisper leaving her lips when he trailed his mouth down her collarbone and made contact with her nipple. Her fingers entangled themselves in his hair as he traced his tongue around the pert bud and lightly sucked. Joker couldn’t get enough of her reactions, he shivered with each moan and he felt something akin to fire within his lower belly. As he pleasured her she was also taking time to explore his own body, finding him to be especially sensitive along his ribs, collar bones, spine, and hair. When she harshly tugged on his hair while he switched to her other breast he had let out a surprised half-gasp-half-moan. He eventually found his chin being tugged upwards and his lips captured once again by Gypsy’s.

Joker smirked devilishly as they drew back. He wrapped his arms around her and turned them over so that he was on top now, which caused her to laugh gleefully. His lips and teeth trailed down her body- but he paused and looked up at her, unsure if he should continue. She noticed his hesitation, so she sat up and gently cupped his chin with one hand and brought his lips down to hers, kissing him with every ounce of desire in her being. Joker was more than willing to oblige.

He chuckled as he felt her hands slip into his undergarments, so he stood up off the bed and shimmied out of the rest of his clothes so that he was finally naked as well. Gypsy propped her head with her right hand and turned onto her side to properly look at his body with lustful eyes, a cat-like grin etched upon her exotic face as she took the sight of him in. Joker then approached the bed and settled himself between her legs as he once again kissed at her neck. He paused to look her in the eye as he caught the fabric of his glove between his teeth and tugged it off, throwing it into a dark area of his room. His now ungloved hand traveled down to explore the trove of curls that rested between her legs and began to caress her everywhere except for the place that emitted a slick heat. His lips once again journeyed down her body, causing her to writhe and squirm as he touched her sensitive areas with his lips, tongue, and teeth. He stopped when an important question popped into his hazy mind and he looked back at her.

"This may be a bit o’ an uncomfortable question, but 'ee ain't got any sorta sickness do 'ee?

She rolled her eyes out of frustration, but Joker hoped that she understood what he was asking.

"No," she whispered harshly. "I hadn't been with anyone aside from Gauriel. Please Joker, just get on with it?"

Satisfied with her answer he picked up right where he had left off, leaving a trail of hickeys in hopes of riling her up and sliding his hand to the source of her heat. He couldn’t help the grin that spread on his face nor the surge of prideful lust that coursed through him at the feel of how wet she already was. She gasped and dug her nails into his arms, softly humming as he trailed his finger all long her slit. She eventually gave him a soft tug on his hair, causing it to fall loose from his ponytail and hairpins and falling more into his face. He chuckled at her antics, a low rumbling from deep in his chest.

“A bit impatient, ain’t we?” Joker’s voice was in its natural deep tone, husky and alluring. He could have sworn that she grew more wet after he spoke.

“Joker, please!”

Finally, _finally_ , he hovered over her slightly and slowly pressed a finger inside her. He observed her face and the noises she made, though he was filled with self-satisfaction as her back arched when he readjusted his hand so that his thumb pressed against the sensitive bud and, with curled digits, he gently thrusted into her as his lips busied themselves with tracing over every inch of her upper body. A smirk tugged at his lips as Gypsy reached up for one of his pillows and pressed it against her face to muffle her cries; it was a shame she had to remain quiet to prevent everyone else from hearing, otherwise Joker would have _loved_ to hear her howling for him. The beautiful Romani woman clamped a hand over her mouth once the pillow got too stuffy for her to breathe properly and she threw her head back as Joker slipped a second digit inside her. She then began to reach for his own arousal, but he pushed her hand away.

“Don’t worry ‘bout me,” he whispered, moving to stand on his knees, “let me take care o’ ‘ee first.” 

Gypsy squinted, though her eyes rolled up into her head and her face twisted into an expression of ecstasy. She raked her hand through her hair, over her breasts, and even up his arms until her eyes snapped open. Joker gave her a satisfied smile at seeing her flushed body arch up as she orgasmed. Once she settled down, she panted heavily and her eyes held stars. Looking up at him, she repositioned herself so that she lay on the bed properly against his pillows with her legs splayed open and an inviting smile on her face. She crooked her finger at him sensually and Joker eagerly climbed back onto her.

What he hadn’t expected was Gypsy flipping the two over so that she was once again straddling him. She adjusted the two so that Joker was sitting up against his headboard and pillows. She pressed their foreheads together and kissed him as she sunk onto him, enveloping him with her slick heat; the feeling caused the two of them to moan softly. Joker’s hands settled upon her hips and her arms wound around his neck as she began to move.

“Ah, Gypsy.”

She seemed to really enjoy the way he said her name since she groaned in response. Her eyes almost seemed to glow from the silhouette the lamplight had given her, making her appear all the more erotic to Joker. She took his hands and placed them over her breasts and moaned enthusiastically when his lips and tongue met with the sensitive side of her neck.

“Joker!”

A delicious shiver coursed through him at the breathy way she said his name, which spurred him on all the more. He thrusted his hips upwards and watched as she reacted: she dug her nails into his hips and moaned. Joker chuckled as he repeated the motion, only muffling her cries by pulling her face down and kissing her.

The only noises that filled the tent were each other’s names on their tongues, soft moans, and panting from the efforts of their love-making. The two clung to each other as their bodies moved together, squeezing their eyes shut and moving faster and faster as pleasure assaulted the two of them. Joker rather roughly grabbed Gypsy’s chin and pulled her into a fiery kiss a few moments before he felt her hit her second climax with him releasing after two more movements, his body stiffened and he gasped sharply as he climaxed. The two panted slowly and touched their sticky foreheads together as they regained their breath. They looked at each other and began to breathlessly laugh at what they had just done, their laughter grew more hearty after Gypsy rolled off him and the two lay on their backs. Once they finally settled down, weariness overtook them. Joker tugged back the blankets and covered the two of them before he tugged Gypsy into his arms. He kissed the top of her head and pulled her closer to himself.She reached up and pecked his nose, which made Joker giggle. 

The lovers embraced one another and eventually drifted off into the most peaceful sleep Joker would ever receive.


End file.
